The Forsaken
by Jgill
Summary: A part of the Ministry secretly banished wizards that it could not control. When the cover-up threatens to be discovered, the banished wizards and Ministry react and the Golden Trio will need to uncover the truth while coping with their personal issues.
1. Banished

Authors Notes

This begins my third Harry Potter fan fiction. This one is going to take a bit as unlike the other stories I have uploaded, I have only this chapter completed. The second chapter is started however updates are going to be a few weeks apart. I wanted to forewarn you of this delay.

Summary

Was Hagrid the only wizard to have his wand taken away without a trial, and if not what about those that had their magic taken away from them. How would they feel about the Wizarding world? Would the seek revenge or try to reconcile with their lost world?

.1.

Banished

Elric Smyth. June 1982

The interview room could be described as stark at best. Elric was bound to a chair in front of a worn table with two empty chairs across from him. However, Elric was really not concerned about his surroundings; he was more worried about his wife and daughter.

Elric tried to fight back his anger as he thought about the events from earlier that evening. He had taken his family out for dinner. Afterwards they had decided to take a walk in a muggle park that was near the restaurant. There was no way for Elric to know how terribly wrong the evening would go.

The muggle thugs caught them by surprise, stunning Elric with a blow to the back of his head, the others grabbing his wife and his daughter. At first all the muggles were interested in was robbing them. However when they found that they had no muggle money on them they had become enraged. Things got much worse from there.

Elric could only remember bits and pieces, really just quick images. His wife being pushed down to the ground, and her clothes being torn. Men climbing on her, then they were beating her, all while forcing Elric to watch. When they finished with his wife they turned on his fourteen year old daughter. That was when Elric lost all control.

Elric still was not sure exactly what he had done. The end result was six dead muggles. When he asked all the Auror's would say is that the bodies of the muggles were in an indescribable condition. His wife was in a coma and not expected to live through the night, however had it not been for magical healing his daughter would have been killed. It appeared that the thugs had slashed her throat when they finished raping her, and that was what had set Elric off.

Elric knew he was going to be going to Azkaban, but he decide it was worth it, his daughter was still alive, and his wife did have a chance. Life in Azkaban was a fair trade.

Cornelius Fudge glared at Barty Crouch as he slammed the report down on the table.

"What the hell are you playing at?" he asked hotly.

Crouch just looked at Fudge calmly, "The report speaks for itself Cornelius."

"You are recommending we not prosecute?" Fudge asked, "You saw what he did to those muggles."

"Did you see what those animals did to his wife and daughter?" not hiding how much he disliked Cornelius Fudge.

Barty felt it was beneath him to have to explain himself to Fudge. However, Fudge had been the first to arrive on the scene of the incident, and fearing a scandal with the muggles, Fudge had contacted someone high up in the minister's office. Barty did not know how he had done it, but Fudge had convinced the minister's office that he could handle damage control for the incident with both the muggles and the wizarding community. Fudge convinced the minister's office that due to the nature of the attacks, damage control would be needed. The problem was that Fudge had done all of this without first finding out what had happened.

Fudge looked at Crouch with a blank expression.

Crouch continued. "Of course you didn't," Barty jabbed his finger at Fudge as he continued, "You were too busy showing the minister's office how you could help them with an embarrassing situation to get the facts."

Barty threw down the case file, the pictures of Elric's wife and daughter spilled out. Fudge drew back, shocked at what he saw. However he quickly recovered.

"Regardless, what he did to those muggles is…"

"Completely legal under magical law," Crouch interrupted before Fudge could continue "A wizard can use magic against muggles in cases of self defense or the defense of others. This is a case of self defense as well as defense of others."

"He tortured those muggles." Fudge replied hotly, "This goes well beyond self defense" Fudge shot back.

"If I had watched those men do to my wife and daughter what those animals did I would have made them hurt as much as I could too."

Fudge glared at Crouch as he finished but he did not say anything. Crouch continued.

"Given the condition of his wife and child we are not going to be able to get a conviction." Crouch pointed to the photos of Elric's wife and daughter, "All the defense needs to do is show those pictures to the Wizengamot."

Fudge knew Crouch was right. However he had already told his superiors he would personally see to it the Elric spent the rest of his life in Azkaban for what he had done to the muggles. He never considered that Elric might be justified in his actions. He could not now go back to his supervisors and tell them he had not looked into all the facts before making his recommendation. His career would be ruined if he did that. The same would be true now if he let the case go before the Wizengamot. Once the defense presented their case, it would be clear that Fudge had not fully investigated the case. This would not do.

Crouch watched and Fudge seemed to be struggling to come up with a way out of the mess he had created for himself. Crouch knew about those like Fudge. They were only concerned with advancing their careers. They had no interest in right or wrong, just what could be done to get that next promotion. Crouch was willing to bet that when Fudge had stumbled onto Elric, he had seen this as a chance to advance his career, and had quickly gone to the minister's office, presenting this incident as potentially harmful to Muggle-Wizard relations. Crouch knew that Fudge was now in a bit of a bind.

Fudge looked up at Crouch, smiling. Crouch did not like that smile.

"Well then, we are just going to have to find another way to deal with Elric now, aren't we?"

Crouch did not like the sound of this.

"What do you mean?" Crouch asked cautiously.

"Whether he is prosecuted or not does not matter, after what this man did, he is a threat to our world." Fudge stated.

Crouch gasped, shocked at what he just heard.

"How is this man a threat to our world?" He asked incredulously.

Fudge just looked at Crouch for a few seconds before he spoke.

"Just imagine what would happen once word got out about this. Wizards would be attacking muggles claiming they did it in self defense. We have to make and example of Elric."

"Cornelius," Crouch answered sound a bit exasperated, "Didn't we just go over this. There is no way the Wizengamot will convict him."

"Then we will just have to take the Wizengamot out of the equation." Fudge stated calmly. "I think we can come up with some form of Administrative punishment for Elric, don't you."

Crouch could not believe what he was hearing. To punish a man without a trial was a violation of several different laws. It was something he would not be willing to agree to.

"Oh come on Barty, I know you have done something like this before." Crouch stated this as it was a well known matter of fact. Crouch just stared at Fudge, his mind racing. There was no way Fudge could know about…

"You sent Sirius Black to Azkaban without a trial; surely you can see the similarities in this case to the Black case…

Elric was getting tired of waiting. It seemed like he had been sitting in the interview room for days. While he was waiting he kept replaying the events of this evening in his mind. The more he reviewed what had happened he became convinced he had no choice but to kill the muggles attacking his family.

It wasn't the fact that he killed the muggles that bothered him. It was the things he had done to the muggles before he killed them. He did not feel guilty about what he had done. The men were rapist, and they deserved far worse, and they were lucky they died or they would have gotten everything they deserved. Elric knew he was going to be sent to Azkaban. He just wanted this to be over, rather than to have to sit and wait for endless hours in this cell.

As Elric finished that thought the door to the interview room opened and Fudge walked in with a man he did not recognize. Fudge sat down and looked through a file for a minute before saying anything.

"We have more than enough evidence here to send you to Azkaban for life." Fudge looked up at Elric as he finished, "Do you have anything to say in your own defense?"

"They raped my wife and daughter and were going to kill them." Elric answered defiantly.

Fudge looked at Elric, and answered

"Granted there are extenuating circumstances, but the fact is you tortured those muggles to death. Had they not been tortured…"

Elric slumped in his chair. He knew Fudge was right. He had crossed the line when he subjected the muggles to several very painful curses. It was those curses that had caused the muggles deaths.

Fudge started to look through the file again. After a few minutes he looked up at Elric.

"You do have a clean record. Perhaps we can offer an alternative to Azkaban."

"An alternative?" Elric asked tentatively.

Over then next few minutes Fudge explained the alternative. Elric would surrender his wand and leave the magical community. The only issue Elric had with this was his wife and daughter. Fudge that under the terms of this agreement his wife and daughter would also surrender there wands and leave the magical community with him. This would leave no witnesses to what Elric had done. In the end Elric had no choice but to agree to Fudge's terms. The good news was he would not have to surrender his wealth. He would convert his substantial holdings to muggle money. They would be well off in the muggle world and he would not be in prison. Elric was never offered a barrister to review the terms of the deal, had he been offered one he would have known that he would never be convicted of a crime before the Wizengamot and never would have known how Fudge had deceived him to protect his career.

Maxwell Edison

8 months later.

"What the hell do you mean they won't press charges?" Barty crouch shouted at the Auror standing in front of his desk.

The Auror shuffled his feet nervously as he answered.

"They say they agreed when they paid the ransom there would be no Auror involvement." The Auror stated nervously.

Crouch glared at the man before them. He had been trying to nail Maxwell Edison for years. Maxwell Edison was nothing more than a vicious thug, preying on good wizards and witches. The number of crimes that could be attributed to Maxwell Edison was staggering. What was even more unbelievable was he always got away with them.

When he had heard the rumor that the children of a prominent ministry family had been kidnapped and were being ransomed, Crouch knew that Maxwell Edison was somehow involved. It had taken a couple days of hard work but Crouch was able to identify the Ministry official and have him followed.

They had arrested Maxwell Edison at the ransom exchange, rescuing the minister official's kidnapped children and having what Crouch thought, for the first time a rock solid case against Maxwell Edison. Crouch did not know how he had done it, but Maxwell Edison had gotten to the ministry official. Without the official pressing charges he could not charge Maxwell Edison with anything….

Maxwell Edison smiled to himself as he sat waiting for that blowhard Crouch to return. Even though he had been caught at the ransom drop, Maxwell Edison was not worried. He had made sure there was no way the children's father would press charges. He had a letter delivered to the wife of the official stating a curse had been placed on her children and if he ended up in Azkaban the children would suffer a great deal of pain before the died. There was no such curse of course, but the ministry official had now way of knowing that. Maxwell Edison knew that the man would not take a chance, and would agree not to send Maxwell Edison away. He looked forward to rubbing the fact that Crouch was not going to be able to do anything in his face. The bonus was he would also get to keep the 10,000 galleon ransom he was paid as well...Maxwell Edison smiled to himself, beating Crouch again was just an additional bonus.

Cornelius Fudge looked up as Barty Crouch slammed his office door shut. Fudge watched as Crouch paced his office angrily, however Crouch did not offer an explanation as to why he was so angry. Fudge sighed.

"So are you going to tell me why you have barged into my office, or am I going to have to use legilimency?"

Crouch glared at Fudge a minute before he finally spoke.

"You owe me Fudge." He stated.

Fudge looked at Crouch, he had no idea what the man was on about, but he did not like the implication in the statement.

"I have no idea what you're on about…"

"I am talking about the Smyth's case."

Fudge tried his best to hide his surprise at the answer. He had successfully bullied Elric Smyth into accepting banishment from the Wizarding world to avoid being sent to Azkaban for his so called crimes. The fact that Fudge would have never obtained a conviction in a clear cut case of self defense did not matter. Fudge had staked his career on the case before knowing all the facts. Granted he had to agree to let Smythe withdraw his considerable fortune from his vaults and Gringotts, rather than seizing them for the ministry and helping himself to some of the gold, but he avoided the embarrassment of losing a case he had told the minister was open and shut. Fudge never expected to ever hear that name again.

"That is in the past," Fudge answered sounding much calmer than he actually was, "Why bring it up now?"

Crouch threw a file down on his desk. Crouch continued to pace angrily as Fudge looked the file over. After a few minutes Fudge looked up.

"I don't see what the problem is. You have this man dead to rights for kidnapping." Fudge stated.

Crouch sighed heavily as he answered. "I have no complainant."

Fudge looked up at Crouch, surprised.

Crouch continued to explain.

"One of my Auror's was informed about a kidnapping of a family member of a ministry official. Once I heard Maxwell Edison was involved I had the Auror do some digging and was able to get the name of the official."

"You never contacted this official did you?" Fudge stated.

"No, I had him followed. We were able to follow him to the ransom drop, and place Maxwell Edison under arrest and rescue the child." Crouch paused before continuing, "The ministry official was furious at first, but he now thinks we were following Maxwell Edison and just stumbled onto the kidnapping."

Fudge had to admit, that was a brilliant cover, and it would be hard to dispute the claim considering that Maxwell Edison seemed to be the subject of several open investigations.

"So what's the problem?" Fudge asked.

"The ministry official will not press charges."

Fudge now understood what this was all about. Crouch could not prosecute Maxwell Edison, but he did not want to set him free either. He wanted to do the same thing with Maxwell Edison that he did to Smyth. Looking at O Rourke's file, Fudge was not sure this was a good idea. Unlike Smyth, Maxwell Edison was a hardened criminal. Did he really want to set a man like Maxwell Edison loose on the muggles?

"You want to banish him?" Fudge stated this more as a fact than a question. Crouch nodded yes. Fudge continued, "I am not sure that is a good…"

Crouch interrupted him before he could finish.

"I backed you up with Smyth," Crouch jabbed his finger into Fudge's chest, "You owe me for that. Besides, unlike Smyth, this man is guilty of his crimes."

"That's what concerns me." Fudge answered back hotly, "What if…"

"He will not have his wand and will not be able to do any kind of magic." Crouch answered back, "He will not be a threat to the muggles. He is more of a threat in our world than he ever would be in the muggle world.

Fudge could see the logic in what Crouch was telling him, despite his misgivings, he agreed to have Maxwell Edison surrender his wand and be banished to the muggle world.

Once they agreed it did not take much to get Maxwell Edison to agree to banishment, and both men told themselves they were doing a good thing, ridding the wizarding world of a hardened criminal.

Once the two men were convinced what they had done was right, it was not long before other cases came up that could not be proven. For the greater good of the Wizarding world they banished these wizards as well. As head of the department of magical law enforcement Crouch soon made the banishment of those that were felt by the Auror's to be guilty of their crimes, but could not be proven were forced into surrendering their wands, and being banished to the muggle world. Once they left the Wizarding world they were not followed up on or tracked…

2 years later.

Will Bannon

Cornelius Fudge frowned as he listened to Will Bannon listed the reasons he felt Cornelius Fudge was a terrible choice for minister of magic. Over the last couple of years Fudge had risen through the ranks of the ministry. His sudden rise in the ranks had nothing to do with talent, but more that Fudge knew where the bodies were buried. In some cases literally. He was able to use his knowledge as leverage to get promotions he really did not deserve. It always seemed that Fudge had the dirt he needed to silence those that had stood in his way. That was on everyone except Will Bannon.

Bannon was a constant thorn in Fudge's side. Not only questioning how he had risen through the ranks of the ministry, but openly opposing some of his initiatives as well. Bannon questioned things such as Fudge's close association with Lucius Malfoy, a known death eater. Even though Malfoy had been cleared of those charges, for a small fee, Bannon would still argue that he was a death eater.

It was Fudge's association with the likes of Mr. Malfoy and other cleared death eaters that Bannon was using to argue against his being made minister of magic, and why Bannon would be a better choice for the post.

Unlike Fudge, Bannon's rise in the ministry was based on his talent and successes as a Barrister for the Dept of Magical Law. Bannon was known to defend the rights of those not able to fight for themselves. Bannon had argued for, and almost won reforms for muggleborns, allowing them to work in the ministry. He also argued for and lost for better relations with other magical creatures.

And now Bannon was arguing against Fudge being made Minister of Magic. It appeared to Fudge that Bannon had the votes he needed to block his being made Minister of Magic, but he was short of the votes he needed to make himself minister of magic. Fudge knew that if he was going to be elected Minister of Magic he would need more than the dirt he had on many of the members of the Wizengamot, he would need to have take care of Will Bannon, before he gained the support of Albus Dumbledore. If Bannon was able to secure Dumbledore's support, then it would be over. Fudge already knew Dumbledore would not support him for Minister of Magic, however so far Dumbldore had remained neutral as he promised he would. Fudge knew that would probably not last. He wished he had something he could use against Bannon.

Will Bannon felt his heart pounding as he raced down the hall to the spell damage ward, he was not sure what was going on all he was told is that his son and his girlfriend were brought to St. Mungo's after some kind of accident. The owl he received from his wife gave him no details, just that he needed to get to the hospital as fast as he could.

He quickly scanned the faces of the waiting room, looking for the familiar face of his wife. He did not see her at first because she was hidden behind Cornelius Fudge and his crony Barty Crouch. What the hell is Fudge doing here, he asked himself as he approached the three of them. As he approached he over heard Crouch asking his wife.

"So you have no idea where your son would have learned this spell?"

Bannon did not like Crouch's tone, it almost sounded like he was accusing her of something. He cleared his throat and the three of them turned to face him. His wife looked relieved Crouch and Fudge looked like a couple of wolves that had just been set loose on a flock of sheep.

Ignoring Fudge and Crouch he addressed his wife, sounding calmer than he actually felt he asked "What happened?"

"There was an accident during Quidditch practice." His wife answered carefully, "From what I have heard he and Nance collided when they tried to avoid a bludger. They both fell about 30 feet, Jonathan broke his leg and Nance…"

Nance was Jonathan's girlfriend. They were dating for the last two years, and more than likely they were going to get married after they finished with Hogwarts later this year. Recognizing this, Bannon and his wife had gotten close to the young woman.

Barty Crouch finished for his wife.

"Nance Warren broke her neck when she fell."

Bannon looked at Crouch, doing his best to hide his surprise.

"I am a little confused. Nance was killed in a Quidditch accident. Why would the Head of Magical Law enforcement and the Deputy Minister of Magic need to be involved?"

Crouch did not answer the question, he just looked at Fudge nervously. Fudge answered.

"Nance Warren was not killed in the accident Mr. Bannon."

Will looked a bit confused. The kind of accident that was described to him would normally be fatal. Even if the victim survived the fall, they would be killed when their spinal cord was severed from the broken neck. Will barely heard the rest of what Fudge was saying.

"We are here because Ms. Warren was not killed by her fall." Fudge finished smugly.

Will looked at Fudge, still not sure what the issue was.

"The fact that Ms. Warren survived is great news. I still fail to see why that would involve you and Mr. Crouch. Cornelius." He tried to hide how nervous he was as he asked.

Fudge raised his eyebrows, before Fudge could answer, Crouch interjected,

"The fact that Miss Warrne survive the accident is not why we are here. We are here because of the reason she survived." Crouch looked at Fudge before continuing, "Mr. Bannon, by all rights Miss Warren should be in the morgue, however she is not, would you have any idea why that would be the case?"

Bannon felt his blood go cold as Crouch finished his question. He did in fact know how Nance could have been kept alive, but Jonathan would not be that stupid would he. He would be risking his own life if something went wrong, or heaven forbid Nance could not have been saved. He did his best to hide his shock from the two men standing before him and shook his head.

"Perhaps we should move to a more private place before we continue this," Fudge suggested quietly, "This is something bet discussed in private."

Bannon let his wife know he would be right back, and followed Fudge and Crouch into a small conference room, Crouch did not wait for Bannon to sit down before starting to question him.

"Have you ever heard of a Life Binding charm?"

Bannon did no trust himself to answer out loud. Of course he knew what a Life Binding spell was. It was an old form of Life Magic that would bind a dying person life force to the spell caster. The spell was used to keep a gravely injured person alive until they could be treated by a healer. The hope would be the healer would be able to heal the mortal wounds. Once the wounds were healed the spell would be released. Bannon knew that Life Magic had not been practiced by the Wizarding World in several generations. The practice had been banned by the Ministry of Magic as dark magic over a century ago. Bannon's family had been asked back then to preserve the knowledge of Life Magic by one of the great healers of that time. You see Life Magic was actually neither light or dark magic, how the magic was used determined its nature. When used to heal Life Magic was no more dark magic than a simple sewing charm, however when used to Harm, there was no darker magic than Life Magic. One of the many Dark Wizards in the history of the Wizarding world had been a practitioner of Life Magic, using it's harmful effects effectively. Since then Life Magic had always been considered very dark magic.

Bannon just shook his head negatively, in answer to Crouch's question. His heart was racing, because the Life Binding Charm could very well be fatal to the caster if too much of his life force would be used to keep the recipient of the spell alive, Bannon could not help but to worry if his son was still alive. However if he asked about his sons condition then Crouch would know he was aware of what was a forbidden charm. So he bit his tongue and listened as Crouch continued.

"Miss Warren is still alive because someone used the Life Binding charm on her." Crouch paused, "Would you know of anyone that would be able to use this charm?"

"No." Bannon answered softly.

Crouch referred back to his parchment.

"Your son was near death when he was bough in for treatment," Crouch stated. Bannon was now sure that Jonathan was still alive, "Surprisingly, once Miss Warren had been stabilized and no longer in danger of dying, you son started to recover."

Crouch was trying to lay down a trap for Bannon. Will would not give him the satisfaction of walking into the trap so he just remained silent as Crouch continued.

"After examining both patients, the healers were able to find traces of a charm they did not recognize at first. Luckily one of the Residents was studying ancient dark magic and recognized the charm as a Life Binding charm. That is when my department was called."

Crouch explained.

Fudge spoke for the first time since they entered the conference room.

"We did a Prior Incantato on your son's wand and found that your son cast the charm."

Bannon sighed heavily. Jonathan was in a bit of a bind. However he knew that they would be able to use the fact that the charm saved Nance's life to defend his sons actions. It seemed that Fudge read his mind.

"Under normal circumstances the fact that Miss Warren's life was saved could be used to defend your sons actions. However, with the current climate…"

Will knew that Fudge meant with the disappearance of the Dark Lord, anything that could be considered dark magic was dealt with very harshly. His son could be facing time in Azkaban. Will was so deep in thought he almost did no hear Fudge's next question.

"The most important thing we need to know is where would your son have learned something like this. You wouldn't happen to help shed some light on that would you?" Fudge asked.

Bannon looked at Fudge, and by the way Fudge was looking at him, he knew that he already knew the answer to the question. Will started teaching Jonathan Life Magic once he started his fifth year at Hogwarts. Life Magic was passed from generation to generation in his family, starting when the children turned fifteen.

Fudge saved Bannon from the trouble of answering the question.

"A scandal such as this would destroy the ministry." Fudge whispered hotly. "A high ranking member of the ministry practicing the darkest form of magic there is."

Bannon could not stop himself, he answered back angrily.

"This is no more dark magic than a healing spell."

Bannon could tell fudge was trying to hide his smile. Fudge had him, and he knew it. Fudge looked at Crouch.

"My god! Did you hear that Barty, this man just compared Necromancy to healing spells." Fudge looked at Bannon as he continued, "If the scandal of this nature would not hurt the ministry so badly I would have the whole lot of you Bannon's thrown into Azkaban."

Bannon smiled. "The only one you could possibly charge would be my son. Considering the spell saved the life of the daughter of a prominent families only daughter as mitigating circumstances I am sure he would be acquitted."

The look Fudge gave him reminded him of that of a cat that was finished playing with its food.

"I would agree with you," Fudge paused, "If we were going to charge your son with casting the Life Binding spell." Fudge handed Bannon a parchment as he continued, "However we are not charging your son for that. We are charging you as well as the rest of your family with practicing Dark Magic and Necromancy. The penalty of which is…"

Bannon quickly looked over the document. It appeared that Crouch had already interviewed his son under Viritaserum and had already been informed of the lessons he had been giving him. It also named not just him and his son but his wife and daughter as well. This was an application for a warrant, no warrant had been issued yet.

"I can have this warrant squashed." Bannon stated as he glared at Fudge, "You know you cannot interview a minor without his parents being present or consent."

Fudge laughed as he produced another form, signed by his wife giving the ministry permission to question Jonathan. The form did not allow the use of Viritaserum but that was a moot point. Bannon felt his throat tighten as Fudge continued.

"Look Will, No one here wants to have a trial. The scandal would destroy the ministry."

"I doubt your going to just simply forget about this." Will stated bitterly.

"I wish we could," Fudge stated, "however there are too many witnesses to just simple let the matter drop. We will eventually have to file a report on this. Once the report is filed…"

Will knew where Fudge was going. Once the report was filed his family would be rounded up and tried. Will was not naïve enough to believe Fudge was going to just let the matter go. He posed too much of a threat to Fudge's ambition to be minister of magic. Bannon sighed as he said "I get it Cornelius, What do you want."

Fudge smiled and answered.

"I think it would be best if you and your family simply disappeared from the Wizarding world…"

The other school of Magic.


	2. Strike first, Consequences be damned

I find myself, to say the least a bit disappointed. Over 150 people read the first chapter, but not one review. I am not going to sit here and beg for reviews, that is not my style. However I do like to get feedback on my stories like anyone else, so please take the time to post a review after you have read the chapter.

So here is the second chapter. I promise you that our heroes will be making an appearance in the next chapter, however these two chapters are very important to how the the rest of this story goes. So here you are. Chapter 2 of the Forsaken.

2

Strike First, consequences be damned.

Minerva McGonagall stared at the list in front of her thinking to herself this can't be right. However as much as she wanted to tell herself the list was wrong, she already knew it wasn't. For her the question was what was happening that students would decline their invitation to attend Hogwarts. Hogwarts was considered one of the finest schools in the wizarding world, however more the fifty students, more than half being new first years either had declined to attend Hogwarts. The other half was students of the other years.

Granted since the end of the second war, wizarding world attendance from many wizarding families had been increasing; however of the muggleborn students many had chosen not to return to school after the second war. Minerva could understand the reasons behind this. The muggleborns that had been forced out of the school and the schools registry being used by the ministry to track them down. However too many of the Muggleborn first years had been declining the invitation to attend Hogwarts. This deeply concerned Minerva. She knew there were still fanatics out there, but the question was, were the muggleborns not coming to Hogwarts because they were being threatened.

It was the thought that the muggleborn students were being intimidated into not coming to school that bothered Minerva. She also noticed that the half blood and purebloods that were not accepting their places at Hogwarts were from some of the poorer families in the wizarding community. Could they be being threatened as well? Minerva decided that she would have to visit some of the families to get to the bottom of this.

"Headmistress," The woman answering the door seemed surprised; however she did stand aside and invited the headmistress in. As Minerva stepped into the home she saw that it was a typical muggle house. She was here to see Beth Ormond, mother to a third year muggleborn that had declined to return to Hogwarts. She had decided to visit this family because she had met the parents on a couple of occasions. Their daughter Priscilla had trouble adjusting to Hogwarts her first year, and Minerva had taken the time to help her adjust. In doing so she not only had gotten to know Priscilla but her mother as well. Once Priscilla had adapted to Hogwarts she had done quite well, getting top grades in all her subjects. This is why Minerva had been so surprised to find she had chosen not to return for her fourth year.

Beth studied Minerva for a few minutes as the two women took seats in the living room. Beth finally broke the silence.

"I know why you are here Headmistress." She stated.

Minerva decided to come straight to the point.

"I was quite surprised to learn that Priscilla will not be returning to Hogwarts for her fourth year."

Beth looked away from Minerva, but did not respond to her statement.

"Priscilla has been doing very well and is one of the top students in her year. Of course I am sure that you are aware of this." Minerva stated

"I know that Priscilla has been doing well at Hogwarts," Beth answered, "That is why taking her out of Hogwarts has been such a tough decision."

"Perhaps if I knew why Priscilla was being withdrawn…" Minerva answered.

Once again Beth looked away. Minerva did not say anything; she just waited for Beth to continue.

"Times have been hard for my family Headmistress." Beth answered, "I had to take a pay cut at work, and we just cannot afford the tuition at Hogwarts at this time."

Minerva sighed,

"We do have ways of helping gifted students that cannot afford their tuition." Minerva answered.

Beth nodded her head.

"I would be certainly willing to assist in getting Beth the financial aide she would need to continue her education at Hogwarts."

Beth studied Minerva for a few minutes.

"Priscilla is a talented witch, and she should continue her magical education." Minerva pushed, seeing the woman hesitating.

"Well the thing of it is. Priscilla has been offered a full Scholarship at an alternative school."

"I understand there are many fine Muggles schools Beth, but none of those schools will continue her magical education." Minerva answered.

Beth smiled.

"You see this is a special school for gifted students," Beth explained, "They will continue with Beth's magical education as well as focusing more on preparing Priscilla to be successful in both the muggle and magical world."

Minerva looked at Beth, surprised. What did she mean this school would continue her magical education in addition to her muggle education? As far as Minerva knew, Hogwarts was the only magical school in Britain.

"If I might ask," Minerva continued, "What is the name of this school."

Beth just shook her head. "I am sure you will understand when I tell you I cannot tell you that. Just like Hogwarts, this school is being kept a secret, I can tell you though, and it is considered one of the finest private schools in England."

"Well, I guess I will wish Priscilla well, and take my leave." Minerva answered.

Minerva visited a total of ten families whose children had either declined the invitation to attend Hogwarts, or were withdrawing from Hogwarts. It turned out many of those students were attending the same school that Priscilla was. Many of the muggleborn families cited the schools not only giving a magical education but a muggle one as well as their reason for switching schools. The poorer families of all the groups, muggleborn, halfblood and pureblood had apparently all been given full scholarships to this school.

After checking with the ministry she learned that there was no other magical school in England as far as the ministry was concerned. Upon finding this out Minerva wrote a letter to the dept of magical education advising them of what she had found. Minerva was sure this was something the ministry would want to look into right away.

"What makes you think this is the Ministry of Magic?" Will Bannon asked abruptly.

Elric just looked at Bannon and answered coolly.

"Because there is no reason for an Ofsted inspection at this time, We just had one last year and there were no problems found." Ofsted or the Office for Standards in Education was responsible for monitoring and inspecting the private schools in England.

The Bannon School had past its last inspection with flying colors. Elric and Will Bannon had founded the Bannon School only a year after Bannon had joined small community of Withes and Wizards that had been asked to leave the wizarding world by Fudge's ministry.

The Forsaken, as they had started to call themselves consisted mainly of those that had been banished from magical society. Smyth was not sure how, but like the immigrant communities of the Italians and Irish in cities like London, New York and Chicago, those abandoned by the magical community found each other and formed their own community.

One of the things that bound them was not the fact that they had been forced out of the magical community, but the fact the most learned they were still able to perform magic without wands. Smyth theorized that once you learned to do magic, you would not lose that ability. It had taken a bit of time but the Forsaken had learned to perform Wandless magic.

Will Bannon and Elric Smyth had formed The Bannon school to help those that had been banished to continue their magical education. In addition the school started out teaching those new to the muggle world how to survive in the muggle world. From learning to use Muggle technology, to training in Muggle jobs so that they could earn a living.

Over the years, more and more people had been forced out of the Magical community. The Forsaken's numbers grew at a steady pace. Whether you were forced out on trumped up criminal charges, charges that could not be proven or as in Bannon's case you would be welcomed into the community of the Forsaken.

Many of the Forsaken still harbored ill will to the community that had so carelessly tossed them aside. Many of those had watched as the second wizarding war unfolded, secretly hoping that Voldemort would bring down the ministry as well as the society that had turned their backs on them. However as the second war progressed, many of the muggleborns that were being hunted down by Voldemort joined the ranks of the Forsaken. As word spread about Voldemort, the Forsaken had decided the old ministry would be much better than one ruled by Voldemort. This had become apparent when the town of Defluo had been attacked by snatchers. They were after the muggleborns that had sought refuge in Defluo. The attack had been repelled, but it was an eye opener for the Forsaken could lose all they had gained over the years.

The Forsaken had gained quite a bit over the years. They had a thriving community, but the pride of Defluo was the Bannon School. The school grew far beyond being just a school for exiled witches and wizards. The school had also become considered one of the finest private schools in England. Children of some of the best families in England attended the Muggle School. Smyth had formed the Muggle School as a way to fund the magical school. There were two separate schools. The first taught Primary Schools to both muggles and magical people. Once the students reached the age of eleven they were sent to the secondary school. The secondary school taught muggles, and the School for Gifted Children taught magical children. The magical students were, as the school did earlier in its history, taught both the ways of magic as well as getting along in the muggle world.

Magical students that finished the secondary school were well equipped, should they want to, to join the magical community as long as they were not related to those kicked out of that community.

In addition to being the pride of the town of Defluo, the Bannon School became the driving force of the economy in Defluo. Many businesses ran by the Forsaken served the School in one way or another. From supplying the school with basic supplies, to providing entertainment for the three thousand students that attended the school. That was why in addition to Will Bannon, Maxwell Edison and a few other leaders of the Forsaken community were attending the afternoons meeting regarding the surprise inspection of the school by Ofsted. Smyth had too many dealings with the Ministry of Magic in the past to not realize the inspection was just the cover story the Ministry was giving to see the school.

The main question that was bothering Smyth was, why all of a sudden would the Ministry of Magic take an interest in The Bannon School. Granted, seeing the number of Wizarding children being denied an education under Voldemort reign had led to the school actively recruiting magical students. Something the school had never done before. The school recruited those that Hogwarts seemed to ignore, students from poorer muggle families that were not comfortable with their children not being taught about their muggle heritage, to poor wizarding families that just simply could not afford to attend Hogwarts.

The aggressive recruiting of magical students was the brainchild of Maxwell Edison who was actively recruiting those students into The Forsaken. Smyth had to admit under Edison's plans the number of those in the ranks of the Forsaken had risen. Not only were the students joining, but their families as well. England now had a thriving second magical community independent of the ministry of magic.

The community had never drawn the attention of the ministry. The wandless magic performed by the Forsaken was not detectable by the ministry, as the ministry relied on wands to detect magical signatures. If you cast a spell with no wand, there was no signature to be traced. So the magical community that had abandoned the residents of Defluo remained unaware of them. This was something that The Forsaken had decided would be a good idea. No one knew what the ministry would do if they learned those they had thought they had denied magic too were still able to practice magic. No one wanted to risk finding out what the ministry would do.

So Elric had been surprised when he received a letter announcing a surprise inspection by Ofsted. Elric had many several contacts within the Independent Schools Council and learned from those contacts no inspection of The Bannon School had been ordered. This meant only one thing, The Ministry of Magic was suddenly interested in their school.

"The question is," Maxwell Edison stated, "Is why the Ministry would be taking an interest in the school now?"

"I have no idea." Smyth answered.

"I do." Edison answered. He however did not share his thinking with the others in the room. Finally Smyth asked him to explain what he was thinking.

"The ministry just went through a devastating war with Voldemort. The ministry is afraid we will become another challenge to them. They want to clean house before that happens."

"You're kidding?" Bannon Scoffed as Edison finished his statement. "The ministry has forgotten about us, and those that remember us do not want us to be found."

"Exactly my point." Edison stated, "The Ministry says it is in the process of reforming. We would be an embarrassment to those reforms, so they want us eliminated."

Before Bannon could say anything, Smyth intervened. There had been no love lost between Bannon and Edison and he was not interested in listening to the two of them fighting again.

"Max," Smyth said patiently, "We have no idea what this about and I suggest we wait and see what the representative from the ministry has to say before we jump to any conclusions."

William Devin sat looking back at his day, while waiting for his dinner guests to arrive. Devine wondered how a day that started out with so much promise had suddenly turned into such a bad day. Well really it was the day's surprises that had turned a good day to a really bad one. To be honest, Devin had not had many good days since Shacklebolt had taken over the ministry. He was one of the few senior ministry employees to actually move up when Shacklebolt had taken over.

Devin had been the Assistant Director of the Department of Magical Law for the last two years, having been promoted to the spot when his boss had been convicted of being a death eater. Devin was a typical minister bureaucrat from the Fudge days. He did just enough to keep his bosses happy, but not enough to land himself in hot water. Devin liked the power that came with being a high ranking official. However Devin's problem was Hermione Granger, his counterpart that had been appointed Assistant Director last year. Hermione Granger was going to be the death of him. Actually, Devin thought, she was probably going to replace their boss. Knowing this Devin made sure to keep some of his old contacts happy. This included the former minister of magic Cornelius Fudge.

When you think about, Fudge had not asked him to do a lot. Just to watch to see if a few names came across his desk, and if the names he had been asked about came across his desk to personally investigate the allegations and report back to Fudge. So after the last two years of watching for those names, and none turning up Devin figured the names would never come up. That was until this morning.

Devin was surprised to see the Education minister waiting for him as he arrived at his office. As he invited the Education Minister into his office, he wondered what this was about. The Education Ministry had its own law department, so they would not normally need the help of the Magical Law Dept.

"So what do I owe the pleasure of you visit this morning Bart?" Devin motioned Bart Daniels to have a seat.

Bart handed Devin a file as he made himself comfortable.

"I am not sure if this is even a problem." Bart answered, "Headmistress Mcgonagall contacted our department last week regarding some disturbing trends in enrollment at Hogwarts."

Bart sighed as he explained about the Muggleborn and poorer Pureblood and half blood students that had declined to attend Hogwarts. He also explained how the Headmistress had learned they were attending another school. The minister explained they had looked into this school, and learned that the school did in fact exist, however the school was registered with Independent Schools Council and considered one of the finer private schools in England. The reason Bart needed to see Devin was it was suspected the school was also teaching magic to the magical children attending without ministry oversight. However since the school was legally registered as a muggle school, did the Department of Education have the authority to shut the school down, if in fact it was teaching magic?

Devin picked up the file on The Bannon School and felt his heart stop when he the names of who was running the school. Elric Smyth and Will Bannon were two of the names that Fudge had asked him to look out for. After Bart left, Devin had his secretary bring him the files on both Smyth and Bannon. Fudge had told him he was leaving the files of those that the ministry had banished with him for safe keeping. Devin was to keep an eye out and if any of those Wizards and Witches names came up he was to contact fudge immediately.

Devin knew that there were those still in Magical Law Enforcement that used Banishment as a tool to weed out the "bad apples" in the magical community. In most cases Banishment was used when the dept of magical law determined they could not make a case against those "bad apples," but still wanted to do something about them. Banishment technically was not legal and violated the rights of the accused. In most cases those up for banishment were bullied into taking a "deal" to stay out of Azkaban or to avoid other consequences. Devin was the one that his associates would bring candidates for banishment. His counterpart Hermoine Granger was not one to dirty her hands with something that was questionable at the least and more than likely just plain against the law.

Staring at the file in front of him was for the first time two wizards that had been banished coming up in an official ministry investigation. He needed to make sure that this could not come back and bite not just him in the ass, but his longtime friend Cornelius Fudge as well. If Granger ever got wind of the practice not only would she stop it, but more than likely would prosecute those involved in the violation of the rights of those fine witches and wizards.

After reviewing the files, Devin advised Bart that this was something he would handle personally considering the involvement of the muggle government with The Bannon School.

That afternoon found Devin sitting in Elric Smyth's office, along with Will Bannon and a third man that he did not recognize, Maxwell Edison. Devin had used the cover of an Ofsted inspection to get in to see the school. As far as he could tell, his cover had not been blown.

"Mr. Devin," Smyth started the meeting, "I have to admit to being a little confused. We just had an Ofsted inspection, and as far as I know there were no problems indicated in the report that the school received."

Smyth handed Devin a thick folder, with a report on the said Ofsted inspection.

Damn, Devin thought to himself, he had not checked with the muggles to see when the last visit from the Independent School councils had been. Devin bought himself some time to come up with a cover story by pretending to look at the paperwork he had been handed. He was here to determine if in fact the school was teaching magic, which would be a clear violation of the Statute of Secrecy. Devin decided to answer with a half truth.

"I am here regarding your school for gifted children."

Devin could see that neither Smyth, nor Bannon were surprised by his answer. Devin did not elaborate any further. He wanted to see how the two men reacted to his statement.

"I think you will find everything is in order for the school for gifted children, if you read the Ofsted report from our last inspection." Smyth answered coolly.

Devin was again caught off guard. He should have read the report before coming out to see inspect the school. However he felt it was important he confirm that the two men running the school were in fact the two former wizards in his file. Of that he now had no doubt.

"Why don't you cut the bullshit Devin?" Smyth said sharply, "We know who you are and why you are here today."

Devin tried to feign ignorance. "Mr. Smyth," he answered cautiously, "What exactly are you implying?"

"We know you are with the Ministry of Magic," Bannon answered this time, he addressed Smyth with his next statement, "Typical ministry," To Devin's surprise Bannon suddenly grabbed his hand and said menacingly. "I would keep my hands away from my wand if I were you."

As Bannon was speaking, Devin had started to reach for his wand. He planned on obliviating the two men since they had spotted him as a Wizard. Devin stopped reaching for his wand right away, looking at the two men nervously.

"My question is," Smyth sounding much like a father addressing a petulant teenager, "Why is the ministry suddenly interested in a muggle school?"

Devin glared at Smyth, not believing the man's gall. He knew damn well why he was here. Devin decided to stop playing games, since the two men clearly knew he was with the ministry.

"We have no interest in muggle schools."

"Then why are you here?" Smyth pushed.

"Give me a break Smyth, you know damn well why I am here," Devin fought to control his temper, "You are teaching magic."

Smyth just looked at Devin for a few minutes, then stated calmly.

"Prove it."

Devin knew he could not. He checked with MLE and there had been no reports of underage magic in the area. That he found to be a bit off, after all by his best account there was potentially a thousand or more students attending the Bannon School, and even if only a quarter of those students were magical they would leave some trace of magic. Actually, Devin had found no traces of magic use at all. Devin just glared at Smyth but did not say anything.

"Well since you have no evidence we are teaching magic, the ministry has no jurisdiction here."

"If the Statute of secre…"

Smyth interrupted him.

"This is not a magical community as far as your ministry is concerned. We have all given up our magic at the insistence of your ministry." Devin did his best to hide his surprise at Smyth's statement, while asking himself what he meant by we.

Smyth continued has rant.

"Even if we were performing magic, since you have kicked us out of the Magical world, your laws no longer apply to us so I suggest you report back to your ministry, and advise them never to send anyone to bother us again."

Devin did not waste time leaving the Bannon School. Several things that Smyth had said led him to believe he should not push things while he was alone. He would consult with Cornelius before deciding on his next move. He had only suspected the Bannon School was teaching magic, now he knew it, and from what Smyth stated, there may be a bit more happening at the Bannon School than just the teaching of unauthorized magic.

As Devin finished filling Fudge in on his visit to the Bannon School he could see that Fudge was a bit nervous. Devin wanted to return to the school with several Auror's and put that arrogant son of a bitch Smyth in his place. In all his years in the ministry no one had ever thrown him out of a meeting. He represented the ministry; people were intimidated by him, not the other way around.

Devin knew that Fudge was worried about what he was going to do next. Deep down Devin knew that even if he wanted to show up at the Bannon School with an army of Aurors, he couldn't. Too many questions would be asked. Too many people could end up in hot water if too many questions were asked. Devin sighed; he really did want to wipe the smug look Smyth had given him as he was leaving off his face.

After a few minutes of silence, Fudge finally spoke.

"To say that this poses a bit of a problem is an understatement."

Devin looked at Fudge with an expression that clearly said "No Duh," however he answered Fudge rather tersely "You think?"

Fudge ignored Devin's terse tone and continued.

"You are sure that this is Smyth and Bannon?"

"Yes. If I wasn't before, I was after I was told I had no authority with Smyth's community."

As Devin finished his statement, Fudge looked concerned and asked

"What did he mean by community?"

Devin had thought about that statement quite a bit and came to the conclusion if The Bannon School was teaching magic, then they would have to have teachers. His conclusion was that there may be several witches and wizards at that school, as well as the magical students. Devin thought that Smyth was referring to the school and let Fudge know as much.

Fudge nodded in agreement.

"However, that does not solve our problem." Fudge stated, "We cannot afford to have Smyth and Bannon just reappear. It would raise too many questions." Fudge paused, "We also need to do something about the school without getting the ministry involved."

Devin started to shift in his seat uncomfortably, he was not sure he liked where Fudge was going.

"I know just the people to handle this for us." Fudge stated more to himself than Devin. Devin was sure of one thing he did not want to know what Fudge was planning. Whatever it was, it would not be good for Smyth, Bannon or the Bannon School.

Gregor Bukovic smiled menacingly at the woman and her young daughter, the older woman was very pretty despite being close to her mid forties. The daughter was stunning. Looking at the two woman cowering before him and his two companions he thought to himself, this might not be a bad job after all.

Bukovic rarely got any pleasure from his work. Sure there was the fear in the eyes of his victims. You see Bukovic and his team were problem solvers, which was just a fancy way of saying they were paid assassins. This job was a bit larger than he and his team normally would take on, but the owed Fudge for helping them get new identities after Voldemort had been defeated. You see in a previous lifetime Bukovic and his team were death eaters.

They had not joined Voldemort's cause for any idea of so called blood purity. They joined his cause because the liked inflicting pain on the weak. Lord Voldemort needed people that could do just that to strike fear into those that might oppose him. Bukovic and his team were a perfect fit.

Since Voldemort's fall a mutual acquaintance had put Bukovic and Fudge together. Bukovic owed Lucius Malfoy for the hook up. Using his connections with the Ministry Fudge had been able to provide him and his associates with new identities and the ability to just disappear in the confusion that came with the end of the second war.

Bukovic had been surprised when Malfoy had contacted him, and filled him in on Fudge's little problem. Fudge, through Malfoy hired Bukovic and his team to solve the problem with the caveat that the deaths of Bannon and Smyth look like the work of a home invasion committed by the same gang. It had been made clear that they wanted the attacks on the families to be brutal, Fudge was not concerned with what happened to the families, just that Smyth and Bannon were killed.

In addition to killing the Smyth's and Bannon, Fudge also wanted the Bannon School burned to the ground. Bukovic and his crew never asked why Fudge wanted the school destroyed. They named their price, received their money and went on their merry way.

Upon seeing Smyth's daughter, Bukovic decided that before killing Smyth, they would have a bit of fun. Then not only would they kill Smyth, but his family as well. Once they finished with Smyth they would move on to the Bannon's. The other three men on his team would be sent to the school and take care of that part of the job. Once again the fact that there were children at the school did not bother Bukivic. The way he figured it if the town was desperately trying to save the kids from the fire, they would have an easier time of escaping. Yes, Bukovic thought to himself, this was going to be a glorious night.

Elric was tired. It had been a long day. Since that idiot from the ministry had shown up a week ago, he and Maxwell Edison had been at odds. Edison wanted to do something to prevent the ministry of magic from trying to shut down the school. Smythe had asked Edison what he had in mind. Edison wanted to kill Devin, to prevent him from reporting what he had found to his superiors. Both he and Bannon were opposed to any direct action against the ministry. They pointed out to Edison that killing Devin would probably lead to the Aurors visiting the school as they investigated what Devin had been working on.

Over the last week Edison continued to push for killing Devin. Today was no different. However Smyth thought he had silenced Edison by stating that by now, any reports that Devin would have to file would have been filed already, so killing him would be a moot point at best. Edison was not happy about this, but he agreed with Smyth's logic.

As Smyth was walking towards his back door he saw his wife and daughter talking to some men he had never seen before. Even from this distance, Smyth could tell the two woman were frightened. Something was not right. After sending a message to Bannon, Smyth decided to take a direct approach.

"Ahh Mr. Smyth so good of you to join us." Bukovic gave Smyth the most menacing look he good as he stepped through his back door. Bukovic was disappointed to see that Smyth did not appear to be surprised. As a matter of fact Smyth appeared to be quite calm, not the panicked husband and father he was hoping for.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Smyth demanded curtly.

Bukovic glared at Smyth before answering.

"Well since you are going to be dead in a few minutes my name is not important. But I have decided before you die, you can watch as me and my friends party with your lovely wife and daughter."

As Bukovic said this he grabbed Smyth's wife and ran his hands over her breast. Again Bukovic was disappointed at the lack of reaction to what he had done to Elric's wife. Most men would have gone insane, but Smyth remained calm.

"Well, if me and my family are going to be dead in just a few minutes, it will not matter if you tell me who you are will it?"

Bukovic did not like this at all. This prick was just way to calm.

"My name is Bukovic, and these are my associates."

"I wish I could say I was pleased to meet you Sir," Smyth answered. His heart was pounding and his mind was racing a mile a minute, but outwardly Smyth maintained his calm demeanor. He could tell this was making Bukovic uneasy. He wanted this, but he did not want them to be on too much of an edge either. He would only get one chance.

"So tell me Mr. Bukovic, what business do you and your associates have with me and my family?" Smyth moved a little closer to the man he was talking to as he spoke. He would take out Bukovic first, then the other two.

Bukovic smiled. "I think first we will have a bit of fun with your wife and daughter, I hope you do enjoy a good show. After we have finished we of course will have to kill all of you. After that we are going to pay a visit to your friend Bannon."

Smyth was surprised to hear that Bannon was to be killed too. He also found himself wondering how these men knew who he and Bannon were. He needed some more information so he said calmly.

"Sounds like you are going to have a busy night then." Smyth stated sardonically.

Bukovic laughed.

"You don't know the half of it. We are so busy tonight I had to split my guys up, with killing you and Bannon and taking care of that school of yours…"

Smyth had heard enough. Taking advantage of the fact that Bukovic thought he had the upper hand he quickly made several hand motions while quickly casting three spells.

The first spell simply turned Bukovic's associates into stone statues. This was not the same as the body binding curse as that just paralyzed the victim. This spell literally turned the two men into stone statues. The other curse he paralyzed Bukovic from the neck down. The minute he was paralyzed Bukkovic started to scream. Smyth quickly silenced him with a simple silencing spell.

Smyth then immediately called Bannon, he told him to get someone over to the school right away and why.

Once he finished the call he looked at Bukovic.

"I have some questions for you Mr. Bukovic, How you answer them will determine how much pain you will suffer before you die…

"Not only were these men going to kill you and Smyth, they were going to torch the school as well!" Maxwell Edison shouted at Will.

Bannon just looked at Edison coolly, then stated, "I am not going to go to war with the Ministry of Magic."

Edison had been pushing for striking back at the ministry once he heard about the attacks on Smyth and the school the previous night. Though he stated the reason he wanted to strike back at the ministry was because of the previous nights attacks, everyone in the room knew that Edison had been looking to get revenge for being kicked out of the magical world for years. Bannon knew that last nights events were just a good excuse.

"The ministry is already at war with us." Edison responded hotly, "They made the first move last night and they will not stop unless we do something to stop them."

Bannon sighed. He knew Edison had a point, the Ministry showed up at the school then a few days later they tired to have the leaders of the school killed and the school burned down.

"Look Will, I know you don't like violence," Edison stated a bit calmer, "However let's look at the facts. The Ministry shows up at the school and then two days later they try and kill the leaders of the school and burn the school down. The ministry wants us eliminated. We have to do something."

Bannon looked at Smyth; he could see that Elric was considering what Edison was saying.

"You're not considering this, are you Elric?" He asked shocked.

Elric looked at Will, and he could still see the anger over last night's events smoldering in his eyes.

"You might feel different if it was your wife and daughter that was going to raped and then killed." Smyth said coldly. He then looked at Edison, "I want a measured response only. We both know who was the one who sent those men. We can start with him." Smyth gave Edison a cold stare before continuing, "William Devin is just a pawn. Before you kill him find out who gave the orders to attack us…"

Edison just nodded and left the room

Bannon looked at his friend of many years sadly and said "I hope you know what you are doing Elric."

Devin sighed heavily as he sat down in his living room. It had been a long day. Hell why lie to himself, it had been another bad day. Devin pounded the arm of his chair, as the thought about what had happened earlier that day. He had no idea why that mudblood was considered such a star, but she was.

The source of Devin's frustration grew out of a meeting that afternoon with the head of the department of magical law. It seemed that they were reorganizing the department. He vaguely remembered being asked to submit his ideas on restructuring the department. He had submitted some half hearted ideas that would not have lead to any meaningful changes.

The bitch Granger it seemed had submitted a far more ambitious plan. The thing was the

Minister of Magic and their boss liked her plan and were implementing it. His boss in his infinite wisdom as a reward for the mudbloods fine work was making Granger the head of the Criminal division, as well as the legislative branch as well. Devin was being put in charge of the administrative division. In effect he was being demoted to nothing more than a paper pusher, while the choice divisions were being handed over to a mudblood. Devin closed his eyes and tried to relax and started to fall asleep.

A sudden loud crack startled Devin out of his near sleep. Looking around Devin shot out of his chair, drawing his wand as he stood. Before he could bring his wand to bear on the intruder, he was disarmed, his wand flying out of his hand. Devin could not recall ever seeing someone draw a wand as fast as this man had.

Devin looked at the man, thinking to himself he had seen him somewhere recently. He just could not place where.

"Who the hell are you?" Devin asked angrily.

The man waved his hand and Devin found himself forced back into his chair by an invisible force. Devin was shocked to see that whatever the man had done he had not used a wand to this.

"Who I am is not important." The man answered, "What is important is what you can tell me about the attack on Elric Smyth and the Bannon School earlier this week."

Devin just looked the man. He must be an Auror, he thought to himself. But how had the Aurors gotten involved in the attack, Devin wondered. Fudge had informed him something had gone wrong with the attack. Of the six men that had gone to kill Smyth and destroy the school, only Bukovic's body had turned up. Fudge would only tell him that Bukovic's body was in an indescribable condition.

"I have no idea what you are on about." Devin answered. As he answered Devin recognized the man as one of the three that were in Smyth's office the day he visited the Bannon school.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what I am talking about," answered the man, "and I think before the end of the night you will be begging to tell me everything you know…

For what seemed like hours, the man put Devin through pain that made the cruciatus curse look like child's play. After what seemed like days, Devin finally told him about his meeting with Fudge, and hiring the men to attack the school and kill Smyth and Bannon through Lucius Malfoy.

Then the pain finally stopped for a few minutes… The man then whispered an incantation and Devin felt like his whole body was on fire, the burning sensation was even worse than the torture he endured earlier. It took what seemed like several more hours for William Devin to finally succumb to death…


	3. A call in the night

3

A Call in the night

Ron Weasley was awoken by the chirping sound of the phone on his bedside table. Ron rolled over and looked at the item that had so rudely woke him, at first he thought whoever it was would just give up and call back in the morning if he ignored the damn thing. However the sound of his sleeping wife quickly changed his mind. There was no need for Hermione to be woken up at the ungodly hour of, Ron groaned as he looked at the clock, 3:00 Am. Ron grabbed the phone as it started to chirp again.

"There had better be a good reason for you waking me up at this ungodly hour Harry." Ron griped into the phone. He had recognized Harry's number on the caller ID.

Harry laughed before answering,

"We gotta body for you." He answered

Ron sat up, "So assign the damn thing to the night crew," He answered grumpily, he already knew that was not going to happen. Harry sounded like he had been awake for a while.

"I can't." Harry answered

"Why not?" Ron asked sharply.

"For the same damn reason they called the Rapid Response team out for this one." Ron heard Harry sigh before he continued, "It's a high ranking ministry official."

"Damn," Ron sighed. A high ranking ministry official, this could only mean headaches for Ron. "Give me the location and I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"What is it?" Hermione asked as Ron put the phone down and started to get dressed.

Ron looked at Hermione and smiled, "Nothing, they need my help on a case. Go back to sleep 'Moine."

Hermione looked at the clock and answered, "They need you at 3 in the morning, Ron this is more than…"

Ron did not let her finish, he knew where she was going, "'Moine, I don't really know anything right now. I just know they are asking me to come to the scene."

While they had been talking Ron had been getting dressed. He kissed Hermione and apparated to the address Harry had given him. He thought he heard Hermione's phone start to ring as he disappeared.

The first thing Ron noticed as he arrived to the scene was the lack of activity. Two men were standing by the door of a two story home, other than that most of the people were standing around the outside of the house. Ron scanned the crowd of Aurors and spotted Harry. Harry smiled at Ron as he walked up to him. Ron motioned to the crowd of Aurors just standing around, before he asked Harry answered.

"They heard you were coming." Harry laughed, "No one wanted to contaminate your crime scene."

Ron groaned as Harry finished. Over the last couple of years Ron had gone through extensive training with Scotland Yard as well as other major muggle and wizarding police departments in investigations. During the training he learned that sometimes the police were their own worst enemy when it came to contaminating a crime scene. Ron wanted to change that trend within the Auror Department. He spent a lot of time with the Aurors drilling them on proper crime scene procedures, and what to do to secure a crime scene. However the training classes seemed to do little or no good. This changed about six months ago when Ron finally lost it. This involved the a case in which a muggle had been killed by a Wizard. Ron found the Aurors sitting around the living room where the muggle had been killed, having a grand old time. Ron lost it, yelling at the Aurors for screwing up the crime scene and probably making it impossible for him to convict the Wizard that had committed the murder. Since then, aurors were afraid to go anywhere near a scene that Ron would be responding to.

Ron just gave Harry a look before asking what the deal was. Harry informed him the victim was William Devin, a senior ministry official, however Harry was not sure what department Devin worked in. Harry informed him his RRT found the body after they were called in by MLE. It seemed the MLE had responded to a well being check and found the front door wide open. Not wanting to take a chance that someone was still in the house, they called out Harry's team.

Harry's team found the body when they entered the house. Harry said the body was in an undescribable condition. As Harry was telling Ron this, Ron was walking to the house. Putting on a pair of surgical gloves, Ron entered the house.

The first thing Ron noticed is that the house was not in any kind of disarray, nothing had been knocked down, and the front door had not been forced open. Ron examined the front door, and it had been opened from the inside, the victim knew his attacker.

Ron then moved from the front hallway to the living room. William Devin's body lay on the floor in the middle of the room. Ron took a few minutes to look around the room from the doorway. Once again the room was in relatively good condition. Nothing was out of place and there was no sign of a struggle.

Ron then noticed the condition of the body for the first time. Harry was right, the body was in an undescribable condition. The body reminded Ron of the mummy's he had seen in Egypt when they visited Bill in his second year. Ron looked up at Harry.

"Bloody hell." He swore, "What happened here."

"No idea mate," Harry answered, "I've never seen anything like this,"

Ron nodded and asked Harry to let the coroner in. As the coroner started to examine the body, Ron took in the rest of the room. The room seemed to be some kind of study. In the center of the room was an easy chair, off to one of the corners was a desk. Ron headed over to the desk, pulling out his wand he started to cast the alohmora charm when a voice stopped him.

"Those are private documents."

Ron turned to the sound of the voice, and just glared at his wife as she stepped into the room. Ron saw Harry and the coroner suddenly cringe. Hermione was doing the one thing that Ron hated the most, contaminating his crime scene. He stopped Hermione with a look, then Ron started to yell at Harry.

"Don't your people know better than to just let anyone walk into my crime scene?" Ron gestured at Hermione, "I don't care if it's the minister of magic, no one gets into my crime scene until I have cleared it." Ron looked at his wife and motioned for her to leave the room.

Hermione started to protest, but Harry gently took her by the arm, whispering to her it was best to let Ron work the crime scene. Hermione just glared at her husband as Harry escorted her out of the room. Harry could tell that Ron would get an earful from his wife later on.

"Who the hell does he think he is!" Hermione spat as Harry led her out of Willam Devin's house. "Did you see the way he treated me?"

Hermione whirled to face Harry, and he just shrugged his shoulders. Sometimes it was best to just let Hermione vent. However shrugging his shoulders was not the right thing. Hermione jabbed Harry in the chest as she continued to rant,

"I bet he doesn't treat you like that does he?"

Harry couldn't help himself. Actually, Hermione had gotten off rather lightly, Harry thought remembering several of Ron's tirades about Harry's oafs trampling all over his crime scenes. Forensics was something that was new to the Auror corps and Harry knew that Ron had to fight tooth and nail to get the department to start using the muggle techniques. Even after the department agreed, Ron had to fight some very old bad habits the Auror's had developed over the years. Harry was proud to say that Ron was making progress.

"Actually Hermione, you got off lucky." Harry said, trying to keep from laughing.

Hermione just gave him a look that clearly said "Yeah, right."

"Look, Hermione, you know how hard Ron has worked on bringing the investigative department up to date, and to be honest, the Auror department has not exactly been helpful, so Ron gets a bit intense."

Harry could see that Hermione was calming down, so he finally asked the question that had been on his mind since she arrived.

"What are you doing here Hermione?" He asked a bit more sharply than he intended. However the question needed to be asked. In the few years that Ron had been in the Auror department Hermione very rarely interfered with an investigation, even if she was the prosecutor in the case, she would let Ron work his case, and present it to her when he was ready.

"You really don't know who your victim is do you?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head, "Hermione, we are at the beginning stage of the investigation, I don't think Ron has even got that far yet." Harry looked Hermione.

Hermione quickly explained that William Devin until earlier that day had been the deputy director in charge of the criminal division of the Magical Law Department. Since he was a deputy director in her department, she had been asked to come to the scene and see if his death had anything to do with cases he had been working on.

Harry grabbed an Auror, "Go get Inspector Weasley and tell him I need to speak with him right away."

Harry faced Hermione.

"So you are here because…"

"My boss called me right after Ron left and asked me to come out here." Hermione answered.

"We have not notified anyone about this case yet," Ron's interrupted the two of them as he walked up, "So how did your boss know to call you?"

Hermione fought back her anger at the accusing tone in Ron's voice, he was just asking the same thing she would be if it were her case.

"I would guess that one of the MLE officers, or Aurors that responded to the initial call informed him when they found the body." Hermione answered.

Ron just gave Harry a look, Harry quickly said he would look into it an get back to him. Harry left to talk to the MLE officers that arrived on the scene first.

"So tell me about William Devin." Ron asked

Ron was starting to get a headache. He was reviewing the coroners report on William Devin. Ron could not believe what he was reading. It seemed that Devin was killed when his magical essence was drained from him. Ron had never seen anything like it. Ron was currently looking for any spell that would do something along these lines and so far he had found nothing.

Ron sighed, so the spell was something new. Ron sighed, just what he needed, a new form of Dark Magic to look into, on top of the homicide. The coroner had in her great wisdom deemed the case a homicide. Ron threw the file down.

There were a few things about this case that was bothering Ron. The first was how the Director of the Magical Law department knew about Devin's death before he did. Hermione said he had called her right after he left, none of the MLE officers, or Aurors had notified him about the body being found either. Ron had wanted to question the Director, but Hermione had convinced him that was not important.

When he asked why Hermione had been asked to respond to the scene, she said she was to make sure there were no current case files at his home. When he asked about his cases Hermione told him she would have to look into that and get back to him. That had been several hours ago and he had yet to hear back from her. Ron got the feeling that he was being stonewalled, and he did not like it. Ron began to bang his head on his desk.

"Hey boss," Ron's secretary Laura was standing at his door, "It can't be that bad." She stepped into Ron's office. Ron looked up at her. He sighed as she handed him a file.

"This case has all the makings of a bouncing baby red ball." Ron answered.

A red ball was a term Ron had learned while visiting the homicide detectives in Baltimore. It basically meant it was a case that there would be a tremendous amount of pressure to solve. The fact that a department head was already involved in the case along with the victim being a deputy director of the same department meant this case was going to be a pain in Ron's ass. Not to mention his wife was now somehow involved as well.

Laura laughed, as she started to straighten out the files on Ron's desk.

"It's amazing to me that you get any work done with…" Laura just motioned to his desk.

Ron just looked at her and grinned.

"I have a system," He answered as he took the files she handed him

Laura just grinned "I'll bet." She looked at Ron, "You have a system for everything don't you Ron?"

She asked, hoping that Ron would catch her double meaning. Laura had been casually flirting with Ron for quite sometime. So far he was either ignoring it, or he was just clueless. Laura preferred to think he was just clueless, because if he was just ignoring it that meant he wanted to be with that bitch he was married to. Laura did not think that was the case. Why would someone like Ron settle for a plain muggleborn, when he could have her. Laura started to straighten up Ron's desk for him.

Unnoticed by Laura, Hermione watched as Ron's assistant flirted with him. Hermione found herself amused that Ron just did not notice the girls flirtations. Hermione knew that when it came to other women, Ron just did not seem to notice them. Hermione was happy to know that she was the only women that Ron would notice.

That did not change the fact that she was irritated that Laura was constantly flirting with her husband. Ron may not notice her constant flirtations, but she did. She also knew Ron's coworkers did as well. Hermione knew it was a running joke in the inspectors corps that Laura tried so hard to get Ron's attention and failed. Hermione normally would just ignore Laura, after all Ron just did not seem to notice she was a woman, but it had been a long day and it was only lunch time. Before thinking about it Hermione found herself saying waspishly.

"I am surprised my husband ever gets anything done the way you are constantly messing with his desk."

Hermione almost laughed at the two different reactions she got from her statement.

Laura jumped, clearly startled that she had been caught flirting with her boss by his wife.

Ron's face just lit up at seeing his wife had come to see him. Ron quickly got up and came over to Hermione, giving her a quick kiss before asking.

"'Moine, what brings you down to the dungeons?"

Hermione laughed. Since she had started working in the magical law department two floors above the Auror dept, Ron had started referring to his office as the dungeons. Hermione handed Ron some files as she answered.

"I wanted to bring you the cases that William Devin was working on," She answered brightly, "and I thought I would take my **husband** out for lunch."

Hermione glared at Laura as she said the second part. It would have been clear to anyone other than Ron Weasley that his wife was sending a clear message to his assistant, leave my husband alone.

"You gonna tell me what's bothering you?" Hermione looked down at her plate as Ron finished his question between taking bites of his lunch.

No. She answered in her mind. She knew if she told Ron she was bothered that his assistant was constantly flirting with him, all that would do is start a row. Since Ron was either oblivious to her flirtations, or just plain ignoring them, it was a fight that was not worth getting into. Hermione knew she had already won Ron ages ago. What worried Hermione was, how long would she have him.

It was something that neither one of them talked about, but the couple had been devastated at the loss of their first child a couple of years ago. Granted it was a miscarriage, but they both felt the loss. They had waited the months Hermione's healer had recommended, and then started trying again. They had been trying to have another baby for some time now, and so far, no luck.

This was something that neither of them talked about. Even though they never talked about it, it bothered Hermione. That was the reason Laura's flirtations bothered her. Not that she was afraid that Ron would stop loving Hermione, but that Ron would leave her for a woman that could give him something right now that it appeared she would not be able to give him, a family. Hermione found herself wondering when Ron would simply get tired of waiting for Hermione to give him a family, and move on to a woman that could, like Laura.

Hermione felt Ron take her hand, and she looked up at her husband. She could see concern in his eye, she gave him a weak smile.

"I'm just tired." She lied, "I am not use to being woken up in the middle of the night like you are."

The look Ron gave her told her that he really did not believe her, after Ron just looked at her for a few minutes Hermione finally sighed and said.

"Why do you let her do that?" She asked. Hermione knew that she was trying to pick a fight with Ron. It was not that she wanted to fight with him, but getting him to fight with her would help her to avoid giving him the real answers to what was bothering him.

Ron looked like he had no idea what she was talking about. Of course he didn't, Hermione had been told many times by her friends that if a woman was not named Hermione, Ron would never notice her. She was glad for that, but that did not help her now. After a few minutes of silence Ron finally asked.

"Let who do what?" He asked, a slight edge to his voice.

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh.

"Laura," She was all she answered.

"What about her?" Ron asked, clearly confused now.

"Oh come on Ron," Hermione shot back, "You can't be that clueless."

Ron just looked at her, clearly having no idea what she was on about.

"Ron," Hermione fought to keep her voice calm, "That tart flirts with you every chance she gets."

Ron's eyes widened in shock. He just stared ate her for a few minutes, clearly taking in what she had just told him. After a few minutes Ron started to laugh.

"You're barking." He answered, "She knows I am happily married." Ron stated to her as if that settled everything.

"Ron," Hermione laughed as she answered him, "Just because you don't notice any woman that is not named Hermione, does not mean those woman don't notice you."

Ron just looked at her, completely dumbfounded. As if the idea of a woman besides her noticing him was one of the most shocking things he had ever heard. It was moments like this that Hermione knew that no matter what happened, Ron Weasley was hers, and would always be hers. It was the moments like these, that helped her through the hard times, and left her with no doubt that in the long run they would be ok…

"So according to Devin the ministry had nothing to do with the attacks on the school or on Elric?" Will asked Edison.

"No," Edison answered coolly, "What I said is that Fudge ordered the attacks."

"So clearly the ministry had nothing to do…"

Edison interrupted Will before he could finish.

"I did not say that." There was a sharp tone to Edison's voice as he continued, "I believe what I said was that Fudge ordered the attacks."

"That's right," Bannon fired back just as sharply, "Fudge, not the ministry. From what I have heard Fudge left the ministry in disgrace."

"Devin was one of Fudge's stoolies," Edison answered hotly, "Even though Fudge is no longer the Minister of Magic he still has a lot of influence within the ministry." Edison looked at Elric as he finished.

It was not Bannon he needed to convince, but Smyth. "We have no way of knowing how Fudge will use that influence to attack us again." Edison decided to hit Smyth where it hurt the most, "I know I would not risk the safety of my family on the chance that Fudge has no influence."

"The Ministry did not order the attacks!" Bannon argued

"Actually," Edison smiled to himself as he spoke. "William Devin ordered the attacks at the request of Fudge."

Smyth looked at Edison and asked, "Your sure about that?"

"Would you like to view the memory?" Edison answered confidently.

Smyth looked at Bannon, and spoke softly. "I'm sorry Will; it seems we have no choice."

"Theres always a choice Elric," Bannon tried not to sound like he was pleading. Deep in his heart he knew what Edison wanted was a bad idea.

"Will, we didn't seek the ministry out, they sought us out." Elric answered calmly, "We did not declare war on the ministry, they declared war on us when the tried to kill my family and burn down the school. We are just accepting…"

"We don't have to go to war with the ministry," Bannon argued, knowing already that his friend had made up his mind. He did not bother to finish what he started to say, he could see by the look in his friends eyes he would get no where. The Ministry of Magic had no idea they had entered into a war with the Forsaken…


	4. The Red Ball

4.

The Red Ball

Hermione ducked as several stunners slammed into the car she had ducked behind. Hermione quickly looked through the windows to see if she could see any sign of her attackers. She once again quickly ducked down as several more stunners shattered the car windows. Hermione was effectively pinned behind the car.

She tried to keep herself from panicking as she looked to see Ron lying on the sidewalk a few feet away. He had been hit immediately when they were ambushed and she had no idea if he was alive or dead. She had to end this quickly, she thought to herself. What she needed was a distraction and something to draw her attackers out.

She remembered something Ron had taught her about being in a firefight. He had told her a firefight was just like chess match. You had to try and anticipate what your opponent was going to do. Hermione needed her opponents to reveal where they were hiding so that she could attack them. Hermione quickly stood up and fired off a couple of blasting hexes in the direction her opponents curses were coming from, to keep them from advancing on her as she worked out what she was going to do.

What Hermione needed was to be two people so that she could…wait a minute, she thought to herself, that's it. She quickly pointed her wand at herself and whispered softly "Effingo". After she finished there was a phantasmal copy of herself kneeling with her. She whispered a few more incantations, and her phantasm got up and started to run towards Ron's unconscious body.

Hermione waited and her plan worked perfectly. As soon as her opponents saw her phantasm heading for Ron, they broke cover and started to fire curses at her phantasm. Hermione quickly broke her cover and as she ran towards her ambushers she rapidly fired off several curses. She was deadly accurate and both her ambushers dropped as her curses struck home.

Hermione ran up to the witch and wizard that had ambushed her and her husband. She quickly placed cast a binding spell on the woman and placed her knee on the man. She stared at Harry and asked menacingly, "Do you surrender?"

Harry just nodded his head. As she released the spells she had cast on Harry and Ginny, she heard Ron say.

"'Mione, that was bloody brilliant!"

Hermione whirled on her husband, it was clear she was not impressed by the changes Harry and Ron had made to this mornings exercise. The four of them made it a point to practice dueling two or three times a week. This was to keep both Hermione and Ginny up to date with their dueling skills. Ron and Harry had decided to test the how the girls would handle suddenly being on their own in a duel. So for the exercise they had Ron go down right at the start of the duel.

Hermione had surprised both Harry and Ginny by keeping her head and not freezing up when Ron went down like they thought she would. Not only had she done that but she had defeated both Harry and Ginny, which she should not have done against the two of them.

"Ronald, If you ever do something like that again…"Hermione sputtered, however she never had the chance to complete her thought. Ron took her into his arms and gave her a warm hug, and gentle kiss. Hermione just melted into his arms. She hated it when he did that, but kissing her husband was always so much better than arguing with him.

Ron broke off from the kiss and explained.

"I needed to know you could handle yourself if you were on suddenly on your own." Ron answered.

"Hermione, you are not always going to have a partner. Sometimes your partner is going to get hurt in a duel, and you will need to be able to fight on your own."

Hermione nodded. She knew that Harry and Ron were right. She also knew that Harry and Ron had trained for the same thing during the Auror training so she could not fault them for the changes they had made. She just wished they had some advanced warning.

Ginny finally spoke.

"Did you just cast a patronus that looked like you?" Ginny sounded impressed as she asked.

Hermione shook her head and answered.

"No, I cast a copy of myself." She answered.

Ginny laughed. "Where did you find that one?" She asked.

Hermione explained how she had just modified a spell that was used to make copies of documents for the office. She had been working on the idea for a while and had just finally gotten the spell to work. It was well known by the Weasley family that Hermione liked to experiment a bit. She never experimented with anything dangerous, but with more practical spells.

"Well it was brilliant." Harry said, "You are gonna have to teach that one to Ron and I."

Hermione just smiled. However as the door to the practice arena opened, her smile fell as Ron's assistant Laura walked in. Seeing her smile drop caused Ron to turn to see what she was looking at.

"Am I interrupting something," Laura asked looking at Ron and Hermione.

"Would it matter if you…" Hermione began to mutter but stopped when Ron squeezed her hand gently, whispering "Down tiger."

"What's up Laura?" Ron asked.

"I am sorry to bother you Ron, but Director Dykema needs to see you right away."

Donald Dykema was the director of the magical law department. He was Hermione's boss. Hermione thought that perhaps Laura had gotten the message wrong, and let go of Ron's hand.

"He probably wants to see me Laura," She stated as she started towards the door.

Laura shook her head. "Actually Ms. Granger," Laura answered deliberately using her maiden name, "He made it clear he wanted to see Ron, not you."

Hermione bit back her irritation at Laura not using her married name. She knew she was just trying to bait her and she was not going to fall for it.

Ron gave her a quick kiss, and quickly headed for the door with Laura following him. As she left Ginny said

"Who was that bitch?"

"Nobody important," Hermione answered as she gathered her things, and left the training hall abruptly.

Ginny stared after Hermione for a few seconds, then turned to her husband.

"Did I miss something?" She asked.

Harry chuckled as he stepped up to his wife, leaning in to give her a kiss.

Ginny quickly pushed him back.

"Hang on tiger," she laughed at the disappointed look he gave her, "Not until you spill it."

Harry gave her his best lost puppy dog look. Ginny however did not give in, so Harry finally answered her question.

"Hermione and Laura don't like each other that much." He answered.

"Thanks for the scoop," Ginny answered sarcastically, "I would have never known that had you not told me Potter."

Harry knew what Ginny wanted to know but was enjoying the playful banter with his wife. After watching her stew for a minute he finally relented.

"Let's see…Hermione does not like Laura because she is constantly flirting with Ron. Laura does not like Hermione because she is Ron's wife."

"You mean Ron is flirting with that tart." Ginny hissed angrily.

Harry laughed at Ginny's statement.

"You do realize who we are talking about right?"

It took Ginny a minute or two, but she figured it out and started laughing. Knowing her brother he had no idea that Laura was even flirting with him. This would of course drive both Laura and Hermione crazy.

"He has no clue." She laughed.

"I wouldn't say that." Harry answered.

Ginny just raised her eyebrows. As long as she could remember there was only one girl that Ron would ever notice, unless your name was Hermione, Ron would not pay attention to a girl, no matter how hard she would try to get his attention. The only reason Lavender Brown had gotten his attention was her brother was angry that Hermione had snogged Viktor Krum. Ginny pictured in her head, Laura standing at Ron's desk, naked and offering him anything he wanted, and Hermione walking in and Ron walking right by her and snogging Hermione senseless.

"Classic." She laughed.

"Enough about Ronniekins," Harry said as he started to kiss her again.

Ron found himself wondering what his meeting with Hermione's boss was all about. Actually he knew that the meeting was going to be about the Devin case. What Ron was wondering is why was he having a meeting about the Devin case with the Head of the Department of Magical Law.

Actually, Ron really did not have to wonder why he was having the meeting. Ron was just surprised it had been two weeks before he had been summoned by any of the higher ups in the ministry. Ron, however, was surprised that he was meeting with the Head of the Department of Magical Law and not his boss. Either way, he was being summoned into a meeting with one of the Department heads, so the pressure to solve the case was starting. A bit later than he thought it would, but it was beginning.

Thinking of the case, Ron was not looking forward to this meeting. Dykema, Hermione's boss would be expecting results. The problem was the case was going absolutely no where. Ron had looked into the case files that Hermione had provided him, hoping to find a lead, however there was nothing there. He then thought if he could identify the spell used to kill Devin, that that would give him a place to start. Devin's cause of death, having his magical energy drained from him was unique, so whomever had developed the spell would be easy to track. However no one had ever seen anything like the spell used to kill Devin.

Ron had been researching cursed objects for the last couple of days, trying to find if there were any objects that would drain one's magic. So far that too was a dead end. Ron desperately needed some kind of break or he was not going to be able to solve this one.

Dykema's secretary told him to go right in when he arrived. Dykema shook Ron's hand as he sat down. Dykem finished reading the file he was working on when Ron came in, initialed the file and then looked up at Ron.

After the two men exchanged brief pleasantries, Dykema finally asked Ron.

"So how are things going with the Devin investigation?"

Ron fought back the urge to tell him they would be better if he was not in this meeting. He answered.

"I am looking into a few things."

Dykema raised his eyebrows.

"Really, what things are you looking into?"

Ron debated with himself on how to answer Dykema's question. Ron was not sure what information Dykema had access too, and did not want to tell him something that could bite him in the ass later. He had seen some cases early on in his career dismissed when the defense had argued a ministry conspiracy against their clients. That was not the case, in most cases Ron had been seeking advice from Senior Aurors, but the defense was able to spin that advice into something else.

"Mr. Dykema," Ron answered, choosing his words carefully, "You know I cannot discuss on ongoing case with you."

Dykema seemed taken a back by Ron's answer, but quickly covered it up with a smile.

Donald Dykema studied Ron as he answered his question. Dykema had never expected him to answer his question. His sources in the Auror department told him that Ron was getting no where on this case. Considering, he had made sure that what Devin had been working on before he had died was kept from Weasley. He was able to do this under the guise of putting Devin's case file together for Ron's review. He then had Weasley's wife deliver the files to him. He hoped that Ron would just assume that Hermione had put the files together for him, and not question the things missing from the files, like Devin's planner for that day.

Dykema had been surprised to find that Devin had been dumb enough to put both his meeting with Fudge and his visit to the Bannon School in his appointment calendar. Dykema knew that someone like Weasley would definitely follow up on both of these things. It's not that Dykema wanted Devin's killer to get away with it, he just could not afford to have anyone find out about the cases that wizards were forced from the wizarding world.

Under Fudge, this would not have been a big deal. Considering all of those witches and wizards had all been forced out of the Wizarding community either based on their opposition to Fudge's policies, or the ministry could not convict them before the Wizengamot, they would surely be prosecuted for violating the rights of those Wizards by the Kingsley ministry. It did not matter that what had been done was for the greater good, he would find himself in Azkaban if these cased came to light.

So Dykema took anything that Devin had that could point to the banished wizards from his office. He also asked to have any files delivered to him before they went to Chief Inspector Weasley, claiming his department would need to review those files to make sure any ongoing cases would not be jeopardized should someone else see the files.

Dykema had been surprised when the Bukovic autopsy file had been delivered to his office. Bukovic had disappeared after Devin had sent him to visit the Bannon School. Dykema knew it was no coincidence that Bukovic and Devin had been killed in the same manner. This presented Dykema with a bit of a dilemma. He wanted Devin's killer caught, and to him it was clear someone at the Bannon School was behind both deaths. The thing was, he also did not want the banished wizards' cases to be discovered as well.

After thinking about what to do, Dykema made some alterations to the Bukovic file, making him an employee of the Bannon School. He then also made sure to have items planted at Bukovic's home that would also point to the Bannon School. Dykema knew if Weasley was even half the investigator he had been told he was, he would follow up on the Bannon School. This would hopefully lead him to Devin's killer, without leading to the wizards that had been banished over the years. This was why Dykema had asked to meet with Inspector Weasley, to put that plan in motion.

"Well, I think I have something that may help you with your case." Dykema sounded calm, but his heart was pounding. He had to get Ron the Bukovic coroner's report, without him questioning how he had gotten the file.

Ron was clearly surprised when Dykema said he might have something that could help with the Devin case. Hermione had assured him that all of Devin's files had been turned over to him. Ron tried to hide his irritation, as he asked.

"I thought I had all of Devin's files." He stated, Ron could tell by Dykema's expression he had failed to hide his irritation.

Dykema chose to ignore Ron's tone, as he handed him a file.

"This file must have been sent to me by mistake," Dykema explained, "It is from the coroner's office."

Ron took the file, and was surprised to find that the file was an autopsy on someone that had been killed in the same manner as Devin. Ron also noticed the file had been created several days ago. He looked up at Dykema. Dykema must have known what Ron was about to ask because he explained that the file had sat in his in box along with other files. He had not gotten to the file until today, and once he realized what it was he asked to see Ron. Ron was not sure why, but he did not believe Dykema's explanation. However he decided not to say anything now, just to file that information for later. Ron then thanked Dykema for his help and headed down to his office.


	5. Digging in the Dirt

AUTHORS NOTE

First I would like to apologize for the delay in uploading this chapter. It seems my Beta reader is having issues with his ISP and has not been able to beta this chapter. That being said I have decided to upload this file without having it beta'd rather than to delay it any further.

I want to thank those of you that have stuck with this story. I know some of you were concerned that our main characters would not make an appearance. Now that they have, this story so far seems to be from Ron's point of view. This will be the case for the next few chapters as I what is happening with the Forsaken and the ministry is developing. I also really do like writing Ron and Hermione as a couple. For those Harry and Ginny fans, don't worry as the story progresses there will be Harry and Ginny moments as well. So here it is Chapter 5, Digging in the Dirt for your reading pleasure.

I thought I would add this as well. I would love to hear from your thoughts on this story. The best way to do that is to leave me a review...I guess we could call this part Digging for Reviews...

5

Digging in the Dirt

"We cannot just sit and wait for the ministry to make their next move," Edison glared at Bannon angrily, "We need to take action now. Before they have a chance to do anything else."

Will pinched his nose, trying to lesson the pain from the headache he was getting. He, Smyth and Edison had been having the same argument for the last four days. Edison wanted to select and kill addition "Targets" in the ministry of magic. Edison argued that this was to prevent the ministry from taking further action against the forsaken. Will was opposed to any additional action at this time. Will was not convinced that the ministry had any further interest in the school. Will believed that Devin had been acting on his own or for former ministry officials that might find themselves in a bit trouble should the new ministry find out about the forsaken.

"We have not heard anything from the ministry since Devin came here." He countered, "I still cannot believe the ministry had anything to do with that thug…"

"You also probably still believe the new ministry would give us all a second chance as well." Edison spat back.

Bannon just looked at Edison. Will had been trying to get several members of the forsaken to agree to approach the new ministry with their cases, arguing that since they were punished without the benefit of a trial and in most cases legal representation that their banishments was a violation of their rights as wizards. Bannon had reviewed the Wizarding Bill of Rights that Hermione Weasley had passed eighteen months ago and felt he could use that bill of rights as a way to re-instate a vast majority of the forsaken back into wizarding society. So far, he had gotten no where with any of the forsaken. None of them really trusted the ministry after what had been done to them.

Bannon ignored Edison's comment, and directed his answer to Elric.

"If we start killing ministry officials we will never have a chance at having any of our cases looked into."

Edison Scoffed.

"And just who do you think would be willing to help us.?"

"Mrs. Weasley's record speaks for itself." Bannon answered. He had been following the cases that Hermione Weasley had been filing over the last several years. In addition to overturning the laws for werewolves, she had also pushed through changes to how the MLE could question prisoners, the need for a warrant to arrest a person, making the MLE show they had proof of a crime to have a witch or wizard arrested and most important of all the Wizarding Bill of Rights stating the rights of Witches and Wizards, such as free speech, protections against unreasonable search and seizure and most important discrimination based on blood status. It was the last item that had opened up many jobs in the ministry to muggleborn's.

"Yet the ministry send people here to Kill our families and destroy our…" Bannon interrupted Edison.

"You have no proof that the ministry was behind that."

"Devin told me who ordered the attack before he died." Edison countered

"Cornelius Fudge is not a part of the ministry," Bannon shot back.

Smyth interrupted the two men.

"I see no reason to do anything else at this time." He looked at Edison as he continued, "So far we have not been bothered by the ministry for a couple of weeks. If the ministry was going to make any moves against us they would have by now."

Edison opened is mouth to protest. Smyth held up his hand to stop him from saying anything.

"If the ministry bothers us, then we will revisit taking further action."

Smyth left no room for argument with that last statement. Bannon could tell that Edison was far from happy with that decision. So far Smyth had been able to keep Edison from doing anything stupid. What worried Bannon was how long that would last.

Ron took a few minutes to look over Bukovic's flat. The flat itself a simple one bedroom flat with a living room, kitchen and bathroom. The flat had very little in the way of furniture, just a worn easy chair, a desk as well as a coffee table could be found in the living room. The flat was actually rather shabby.

Over the last couple of days Ron and Harry had been looking into Bukovic's background. They learned that Bukovic had been a low ranking death eater during the war. He was from what they had learned used as nothing more than muscle for the cell he was involved with according to the file the Order of the Phoenix had on him. They learned that in general Bukovic was not a nice person, but nothing more. So far, they had found no link between Bukovic and William Devin.

Ron was hoping that they would find some kind of link when they searched his flat. However to his frustration it had taken Hermione a couple of days to get a search warrant for him. When he asked Hermione what the delay was, all she would say is that for some reason her boss had gotten involved in the matter. When he pushed her for more information, she did not answer the question, and changed the subject. Ron knew better than to push his wife for an answer, as she sounded a bit irritated.

Now that he had a search warrant, He and Harry could finally get into Bukovic's apartment. However looking at the sparsely decorated apartment Ron had very little hope that they would find anything that would help them.

Unlike the movies, looking for evidence was a meticulous process. The evidence you are looking for is not normally out in plain view, and it is never something obivious that screams out-this is the proof you need. This was certainly the case with the Bukovic flat.

The two Aurors had been searching for about a half hour when Harry called to Ron.

"Ron, take a look at this."

Ron went to see what it was that Harry had found. Ron was surprised to see that Harry was looking at a pay stub from a school he never heard of. The Bannon School. In addition Harry also found an Id badge Identifying Bukovic as Security. Ron looked at Harry.

"Why would a former death eater be working at school?" Ron asked.

Harry's eyes suddenly got wide, Ron did not need to ask what Harry was thinking.

"We need to find out all we can about that school." Harry sounded worried.

Ron shared Harry's concern because he could only think of one reason a school would hire a former death eater…

Cornelius Fudge was not a happy man. It seemed that his past might finally be catching up to him, and what bothered Fudge was that he would more than likely end up in Azkaban once it did. People would not understand how dangerous things were while he was the Minister of Magic, and he did what had to be done to protect the Wizarding world.

However, now his policy of getting rid of those he could not prosecute was about to come back and bite him in the ass. He had thought that by having undesirable elements forced out of the wizarding world would improve wizarding society. The fact that he was able to eliminate those opposed to his policies was just an added bonus. He never thought that he would have to ever worry about those rivals once they had been forced from the wizarding world.

That was until Willam Devin bought him a file on the Bannon school. A muggle school that had been bought to the attention of the Department of Magical Education. It seemed that a great deal of muggleborn Hogwarts students were transferring to the Bannon School. Fudge at first was not worried, if muggleborns left the magical world behind, he was all for it. That was until he saw the names of who was running the school. When he saw the name of Elric Smyth and Will Bannon he almost had a heart attack.

He could not afford to have just anyone look into this school, what if they recognized Bannon or Smyth…So Fudge took steps to make sure that the school was looked into by someone he knew. When Devin confirmed that Smyth and Bannon were running the school Fudge had to do something. Fudge had to eliminate the threat.

Fudge could not believe how bad things had gone. Bukovic had been a reliable problem solver in the past. However Fudge never heard anything more from Bukovic, and then Devin ended up dead. Fudge was pretty sure that Devin's death was related to the Bannon school. The problem was, he could not share this with anyone. He could not afford to have the policy of banishment dug up.

Then Bukovic's body turned up. With two of the people Fudge had involved with the Bannon school turn up dead, Fudge had no doubt that Smyth or Bannon was behind it. He needed something done about them, and had shared that with Dykema. Hearing someone approaching, Fudge looked up to see Dykema sitting down across from him. Without waiting for Dykema to get comfortable Fudge stated hotly.

"I have been told that Weasley is looking into the Bannon school."

Dykema seemed pleased with this information. Before Dykema could say anything Fudge continued.

"I was just wondering what would lead Inspector Weasley to the school?"

"I made sure that Weasley would find a link to Bukovic and the Bannon school." Dykema stated, sounding very please with himself.

Fudge had just started to take a sip of his drink when Dykema answered him. Fudge spat out the what he drank as he sputtered angrily."

"Good heavens man, why the hell would you do something like that?"

Dykema glared at Fudge angrily as he answered "I was thinking that it would be nice if Devin's killers were bought to justice."

Fudge sat stunned for a minute. He could not believe that Dykema had been so stupid.

"At what cost?" He asked angrily.

Dykema looked at Fudge, clearly not understanding his meaning.

"What do you think will happen when Weasley learns there is no connection between the school and Bukovic."

"That won't happen. I planted evidence at his apartment showing he worked for the school."

"And when Weasley checks the schools employment records?" Fudge asked.

Dykema did not answer.

"So now not only will Weasley find out about Smyth and Bannon, but he will now be looking to find out who planted evidence pointing to the school, and more importantly, why."

Dykema swore softly. Fudge was right, Weasley would look into why someone would link Bukovic to the school especially after finding no record that Bukovic ever worked for the school. That would lead him to…

"Oh shit." He muttered.

"Yes, Oh shit just about covers it." Fudge hissed. "We have to make sure that Weasley forgets this case."

"And just how do we do that?" Dykema asked.

"We make sure he has something more important to think about." Fudge answered coolly, "Perhaps we can use his wife as a distraction."

"Hermione would never…" Fudge interrupted Dykema.

"Your right, however if something were to happen to Mrs. Weasley…"

Dykema did not like where Fudge was going with this, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was already in too deep…

Ron knew something was wrong the minute he stepped into his house. There were no lights on in the house. Ron knew that Hermione had been home for at least a couple of hours. Not wanting to risk being seen by anyone Ron cast a quick spell that improved his night vision. Once he was able to see clearly, he moved into the house.

After a quick search of the kitchen and dining room he started to move towards the living room. As he approached the living room Ron heard muffled sobs from that room. Ron approached the living room cautiously. Looking in the room he saw Hermoine sitting in her favorite armchair, she was holding her knees and rocking back and forth as she cried.

Ron quickly put his wand away and approached is wife.

" 'Moine, What's wrong sweetheart." He asked gently.

Hermione just looked at him he could see that she was devastated by whatever happened. The thing was, he had no idea what that was.

"Why do you stay with me?" She asked softly.

Ron looked at her, dumbfounded. He then kneeled down in front of his wife, taking her hands gently he answered "Because I love you."

As he answered Ron searched his mind, trying to understand why she was this upset ,as he thought he remembered that Hemione had been late, and was excited that she might be pregnant.

Ron gently caressed Hermione's cheek, as he finished he gently tilted her head so she was looking at him. He could see a deep sadness in her eyes.

"Why would you love a woman like me?" She asked softly. The sadness in her voice broke Ron's heart.

"You mean one of the most intelligent, wonderful woman I have ever met?" Ron asked.

Hermione just looked at him.

"No, A woman that is unable to give you a child."

"Hermione, we will have a baby.."

Hermione interrupted Ron before he could finish.

"Ron it's been eighteen months, I think it's safe to say I am not able to have a baby."

"Hermione, you know that is not true," Ron answered, "You were pregnant.."

"And I lost that baby Ron." Hermione answered back, with a hint of anger in her voice.

"Don't you dare blame yourself for losing Fabian, that was not your fault it was that assholes Blaine." Ron could not help sounding a little angry.

"Then why can't I have another child?" Hermione asked as tears rolled down her cheeks, "The only thing I can think of is that the fates have decided I will not be a good mother because of what I let happen to Fabian."

Ron gently pulled Hermione to him and let her cry. There was nothing he could say to comfort her. She hid it well but Hermione had taken the loss of Fabian very hard. After six months, they had decided to go ahead and have another baby. They had been trying now for eighteen months, with no luck. Ron knew that Hermione was blaming herself for their not being able to conceive a child. Ron knew that this was not anyone's fault, it was just the way things worked out sometimes. He just wished he could get Hermione to believe that.

"Inspector Weasley," Elric shook Ron's hand firmly, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Smyth motioned for Harry and Ron to sit down as he too sat down behind his desk.

As he was sitting down, Ron took a few seconds to take in Smyth's office. He also reviewed what he and Harry had learned about the ministries interest in the Bannon school.

It seemed that several muggleborn students had transferred from Hogwarts to the Bannon school. Enough so that Headmistress McGonagall had contacted the Dept of Education. After reviewing what the Headmistress told them, it appeared the Dept of Education felt the school might be teaching magic, without ministry oversite. The investigator had decided to consult the Dept of Magical Law before going any further since the Bannon School was a highly respected muggle school. According to the investigator from the Dept of Education, William Devin advised them he would look into the school since this was something that would involve his department.

Ron and Harry found that Devin reported finding nothing out of the ordinary at the Bannon school. Devin had been killed shortly after his visit to the Bannon School. In addition it seemed that Bukovic had been killed twenty four to fourty eight hours prior to Devin. The fact that both Devin and Bukovic had a connection to the Bannon was hard to ignore.

Ron learned that the Bannon School was considered one of the finest private schools in England. The thing was the school not only was attended by some of the wealthiest families in England, but through generous scholarship programs many children of low income families were able to attend the school as well.

It made no sense to Ron and Harry that a school with as fine as a reputation as The Bannon School would hire someone like Bukovic. The fact that the school hired not just a wizard but a known death eater as well as both of the victims in Rons's investigation had a connection to the school warranted a visit to the school.

"Headmaster," Ron answered as he an Harry sat down, "I want to thank you for taking the time to see us, I know you must be a very busy man."

Smyth just smiled at Ron, as he spoke. "Well then," He said, "Why don't you let me know how it is I can help you."

Harry opened a folder, and handed him a photo of Bukovic. "Have you ever seen this man?"

Smyth looked at the photo. Ron saw a brief look of surprise come over Smyth

S face, but he hid it quickly. As Smyth handed the picture back to Ron he answered.

"Yes, he was here several days ago," Smyth handed the photo to another man named Edison who also looked at the photo, "He was with that fellow from the Independent Schools Council, what was his name?"

"Devin." The man answered Smyth as he handed the photo back to Smyth.

"Yes that's right Devin." Smyth handed the photo back to Harry.

Ron raised his eyebrows. "So he was with the Independent Schools Council?" Ron watched Smyth's face as he asked, "Can you tell me the nature of their visit?"

Smyth tried to hide the quick look he gave Edison before he answered. "It was just a routine follow up of our last Ofsted inspection.

"So he worked for the Independent Schools council then?" Ron asked.

"I would think so since he was with one of their inspectors." Smyth answered.

"We must have been misinformed Harry," Ron said as he started to get up.

Harry stayed seated and stated harshly, "That's funny because The ISC told us he works for the Bannon school."

As Harry finished his statement he handed Smyth copies of Bukovic's pay statements they had found at his apartment along with Bukovic's ID from the school.

Smyth looked at the documents, and then handed them to Edison.

"Inspector Potter is it?" He asked. He waited as Harry nodded, "Where did you get these?"

"I'm sorry, but that is part of an ongoing investigation." Harry answered, "So which is it Mr. Smyth, as you can see we know Bukovic worked for your school."

Smyth handed the documents back to Harry, "Inspector, I asked where you got these because they are forgeries. Your man Buckovic has never been an employee of the Bannon School."

"But he has been here?" Ron asked.

"I already answered that Inspector Weasley, he was here with that Devin fellow. Why don't you check with the independent Shcools Council."

"We have." Ron answered, " They have no record of a William Devin working for them, and never ordered a follow up on the last Ofsted inspection."

Smyth was clearly surprised by that statement. "So who were they?"

Ron smirked as he answered "Actually the more important question is why they are both now dead." Ron answered back. He noted that noyh Smyth or Edison seemed surprised at Ron's statement.

"We were played for fools." Ron stated angrily as they arrived back to his office.

"The question is Why?" Harry asked.

Ron sat down at his desk, after a minute he answered.

"Someone wanted us looking into that school."

"Who and why?" Harry asked

"The who is easy," Ron answered, "Who gave me the Bukovic file."

Harry looked at Ron, dumbfounded "Why would Dykema do that?"

"I have no Idea, but I intend to find out." Ron answered.

Harry hoped that whatever reason Dykema had for trying to get the two of them to look at that school was worth it.

"Just remember, I want Weasley distracted." Cornelius looked at his niece wanting to make sure she understood what he wanted clearly.

"I understand, uncle Cornelius." Laura sighed, "However I think if we kill her, he would…"

"Never rest until he found her killers." Fudge answered back angrily.

Laura did not answer her uncle. She did not care if Ron would never rest. This was her chance to eliminate the one reason she would never have a chance with Ron and she fully intended to take advantage of it…


	6. The Enemy Within

Author's Note: A lot happens in this chapter. I would strongly encourage you to read The Order of the Dragon and Redemption my two previous stories. Though you only would need to read Redemption to not be confused by parts of this chapter. I know it took a long time for me to write this chapter, parts of this chapter were very difficult to write.

I have also seemed to have lost contact with my Beta reader so I am uploading this story without the benefit of a beta. I am looking for a Beta Reader for anyone that may be interested please send me a private message.

Well enjoy everyone.

6

The Enemy Within

_I'm not giving in _

_To Security under pressure_

_I'm not missing out_

_On the promise of adventure_

_I'm not giving up on implausible dreams_

_Experience to extremes_

_Experience to Extremes_

"You do know who just left?" Edison jabbed angrily at Bannon as he spoke.

Will fought to keep his temper. He knew losing his temper would do him no good. The leaders of the Bannon School had been having the same argument for the last couple of hours. Actually it seemed they had been having the same argument over the couple of weeks since William Devin had visited the school. Edison wanted to launch an all out strike against the Ministry of Magic. Will wanted to go about things a bit differently using some of Hermione Weasley's new laws to bring those that had banished them from their world to justice. So far neither he nor Bannon had completely won Elric Smyth over to their point of view.

It seemed the Smyth was going to let Edison go ahead with strikes against the ministry. Bannon had over a couple of days of talking with Smyth bought him back from the edge. Smyth finally had seen Bannon's point of view. Bukovic and Devin were not working on the behalf of the ministry, but for Cornelius Fudge. Bannon had pointed out that the Ministry had nothing to gain in trying to kill Smyth, or destroy the Bannon School. Cornelius Fudge, had a lot to lose should the new ministry discovered his policy of banishing those he either could not convict of the crimes they were accused, or as in Banner's case proposed a political threat to his power.

It had taken a lot to convince Smyth that doing nothing would be the best course of action. Anything else they might do might draw the Ministries attention to them. This argument had the benefit of preventing Edison from starting a campaign of terror against the Ministry of Magic. Unfortunately it also meant he could not pursue legal remedies like he wanted to as well. Smyth had pointed out that just like an attack on the ministry; legal challenges would also draw the attention of the ministry to the group.

The sudden visit to the Bannon School by two of the best Auror's the ministry had seen in a long time changed everything. Edison was arguing that the visit by Potter was a precursor to an attack by the ministry. Bannon had argued that the visit was just what Weasley had said it was. He was following up with the employer of the victim of a suspicious death. Bannon reiterated this point to Edison calmly.

"Oh come off it Bannon," Edison answered hotly, "Why would they think that Bukovic was an employee of the school?"

"I think the Id they found may have had something to do with that." Answered Bannon.

"Why would Bukovic have a Bannon school Id?" Edison countered.

"Perhaps it was Bukovic that needed to scout out the school and used the ID to gain access to the school."

Edison looked at Bannon for a few seconds, and then he started to laugh.

"Bannon do you really believe that bullshit?" Edison looked at Smyth, trying to gage where he stood in the argument. As usual he could not tell what Smyth thought, he was as he usually did listening intently to what both men were saying, time to end this argument once and for all.

"Come on Will, we all know that Harry Potter leads an elite team of hit Wizards. He was here to scout out the school so he can plan his attack." Edison felt satisfied with that statement. There was no way Bannon could counter it, Potter's record spoke for itself.

Bannon fought back the urge to laugh as he answered.

"Actually the Rapid Response Team is the equivalent to a muggle S.W.A.T or Hostage Rescue Team." Bannon knew that Edison was trying to play on Smyth's fears for all he had worked for building the school. He had to show the school was not in any danger from Harry Potter. It was Edison turn to look skeptical as he continued.

"As a matter of fact in over thirty incidents only one suspect was killed. In that case the suspect appeared to be about to kill the Hostage. In all the other incidents the suspects were taken into custody alive and able to stand trial. That is hardly the record of an elite team of hit wizards."

Smyth spoke before Edison could continue arguing with Bannon.

"Max, I don't want to make the first move here. Let's wait and see what happens before we do anything. In the meantime we will strengthen the defenses around the schools and our homes."

Edison looked like he had more he wanted to say on the matter, however Smyth left no room for argument so Edison let the argument go, for now.

Laura looked up quickly as the door to the coffee shop opened; she then looked down after not seeing the person she was waiting for enter the shop. The last few weeks had been some of the most difficult she had in a very long time.

The problem had nothing to do with her work. Well, that was not entirely true. Laura was frustrated because Ron Weasley did not see her as anything more than just a coworker at the worse and just a friend at the best. Laura desperately wanted Ron to see her as the vibrant young woman that she was.

Laura sighed. She knew that until his wife was out of the picture that was never going to happen. This was why she had volunteered to help Uncle Cornelius with Distracting Ron from the Devin case. The only difference in what she was going to do, and what Uncle Cornelius wanted is she was going to eliminate Ron's wife. Laura smiled to herself, who was she kidding? She was going to have Hermione Granger killed.

Laura had met with the people that her uncle had recommended for the job. After a bit of hassle with them over who the target was, it seemed that Hermione had a reputation as a fierce fighter. The men pointed out to Laura the Hermione Weasley had captured Fenrir Greyback as well as bringing down Deloris Umbridge. Laura reminded the idiots that Granger had not been alone when those two had been taken down. She was with Potter and her husband. She argued that Hermione just took credit from Ron for the capture of Greyback and the death of Umbridge. She told the men that everyone knew that Granger was the brains of the trio, not the brawn. Once the men were satisfied that Hermione would be an easy target everything had been arranged.

The challenge was finding the opportunity to attack the bitch. It seemed the Weasley's very rarely went out in public. Laura was sure that this was because the Princess knew she really did not belong with Ron. Ron had told her once that they did not like the attention they attracted whenever they went out. Laure could not understand why Ron would not like receiving the recognition he deserved for all of his accomplishments. It was the Mudblood that kept Ron from the Wizarding world. Probably because she was afraid of what would happened if Ron encountered a true Pureblood witch that belonged in his world.

Laura looked at her watch. She did not have a lot of time left of her lunch hour, her contact was late. She had learned from Ron that morning that the bitch was spending Saturday shopping at Diagon Alley with Ron's sister. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for; Ron was going to be working Saturday so they would be able to get Granger alone, well at least without Ron or Harry Potter with her. Laura was sure that without Ron or Harry it would be easy to kill Hermione Granger.

Laure looked up again as the door opened, this time the man she had been waiting for stepped into the coffee shop. Yes, Laura thought to herself as her contact approached her, things were definitely looking up…

Hermione could not help but smile as she listened to Ginny going on about married life. So far all Ginny had talked about was how messy Harry was. Honestly, Hermione had no idea why this surprised Ginny. Ron's room had always been a mess, and Harry and Ron had shared his Room for the summer for the last six years they were in school.

Hermione smiled to herself. Unlike Harry, her Ron had changed his ways. He had become much neater since getting married. Many of her friends from school wondered how she could stand living with a clueless prat like Ron. What they didn't know was that Ron was far from being the clueless prat he was in school. Ron was a very loving and sensitive husband. Hermione could not believe how lucky she was too married too such a wonderful man.

Hermione found herself wondering how long Ron would stay with a wife that could not give him the one thing he desperately wanted, a family. Ron deserved to have the family the two of them talked about. That appeared to be something that she would not be able to give him. She knew she was being selfish in staying with Ron, knowing she could not give him a child. For her there was no one else. She knew that when Ron finally did leave her she would be heartbroken. For now though, Hermione was happy and she would hang on to that happiness as long as she could.

"Hermione?" Ginny's voice interrupted her thoughts. "What's wrong?"

Hermione smiled at Ginny.

"Just a little tired," She lied, "It's been a long week."

Ginny knew Hermione was lying. On the surface Hermione seemed just fine, however Ginny could see a deep sadness in her sister in laws eyes. Ginny knew that Hermione had taken the loss of Fabian very hard. Ginny thought that she and Ron had worked that. Now looking at her friend pretending she was ok, Ginny knew that was not the case. Ginny wanted to help Hermione; she was just not sure how to approach her.

Ginny listened as Hermione answered her question. Hermione's answer seemed more like a reflex action instead of a sincere answer.

"How are things with you?" Hermione asked. Ginny knew that Hermione was asking the question to deflect the conversation from her, and back to Ginny. Ginny was having none if it.

"Hermione, it's me," Ginny countered gently, "I can see that something is bothering…"

"Ginny, really" Hermione interrupted "I'm fine."

Hermione jumped a little as Ginny gently placed her hand over hers as she continued.

"Hermione, that may work with anyone else, but we shared a room every summer for the last six years. I know you. I can see it in your eyes, something is wrong. I may not be able to fix whatever it is but I would be happy to listen to whatever it is."

Hermione quickly looked away from her sister in law as she finished offering to listen to her. She was debating whether or not to share with Ginny what she and Ron had been going through. This was something that not only was deeply personal for her, but her husband as well. In the end her need to get things off her chest won out.

Once she started, Hermione was surprised at how much she shared with Ginny, from how heartbroken she had been over ht loss of Fabian to her fear that Ron blamed her. The last thing she shared was her fear that Ron would leave her for a woman that could give him the family he wanted. As she poured everything out, she started to cry.

"You this is why Ron is going to be done with me," She stated sadly as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "I'm a basket case."

"Hermione," Ginny prodded gently, trying to keep from getting angry at her prat of a brother. How could he be even of leaving Hermione after all they had been through? "Are you and Ron splitting up?"

Hermione just stared at Ginny, wondering where she would have gotten that idea from.

"Of course not," she answered quickly, realizing that Ginny had misunderstood her.

"Ron has been the only reason I have stayed grounded. He has been wonderful," She looked down, "I am afraid that Ron will want to find someone that can give him a family, something I clearly am not able to do."

"You and Ron are trying to have a baby again!" Ginny gasped. Hermione could see that Ginny was finally beginning to understand. Hermione just nodded yes.

"Hermione that's great!" Ginny jumped up and gave her a hug. As Ginny pulled back she noticed Hermione's lack of enthusiasm. Hermione answered the question before she asked it.

"We've been trying for the last year and a half."

Ginny looked at her sister in law, not sure what to say. This is what Hermione was afraid of, the awkward silence that would be followed by look of pity and understanding.

"Hermione, I had no idea." Ginny stated, and then her expression turned angry.

"Ron's not blaming you is he?"

"No, of course not, he's actually been wonderful." She answered right away, "He says that sometimes it just takes a little bit of time." Hermione smiled as she remembered the rest of what Ron had said, "He also said he didn't mind the practice."

"Hermione!" Ginny sounded shocked, "That is something a blokes sister just does not want to hear.

Ginny laughed as she finished. It was nice to see a genuine smile from Hermione. However Hermione's smile faded quickly as she started to once again voice her fears.

"The thing is no matter how much a team practices they eventually want to get into the game."

Ginny now understood what had been bothering Hermione. She was afraid that Ron would leave her for a witch that would be able to have his baby. For being the brightest witch of her age, Ginny thought she really did not know her husband.

"Hermione," Ginny fought to keep from laughing,

The way Ron seemed to come to life around his wife was a running joke for the Weasley family. You could always tell when Hermione entered a room just by the way her brother seemed to light up. She also knew the same was true with Hermione, that was something her family never seemed to notice, Hermione's reaction to her brother. Until Harry had pointed this out to she had never noticed it as well.

"Have you ever seen the way my brother looks at you?"

Hermione didn't have to answer, she knew by the look on her face that she did.

"How could you ever think that Ron would want a family with anyone else?"

"Ron wants a family," Hermione answered, "He wants the whole thing two kids, a dog and…"

"Yes Hermione," Ginny countered, "He does want that, but only if he can have that with you."

Hermione started to shake her had in disagreement. Before she could say anything Ginny continued.

"You've seen the way that tart of a secretary of his throws herself at him?" The angry look coming over Hermione's face was the only answer Ginny needed. "You do know that Ron never notices it."

Hermione Chuckled. "She gets so pissed about it."

Ginny laughed. "She gets pissed because Ron notices only you. I don't think my brother realizes she is a woman. That's because for him there only one woman in this world and her name is Hermione."

Hermione started to laugh with Ginny, feeling better than she had in a long time.

Ron let the sound of the crashing waves against the rock sooth him. Ron had apparated to the shell cottage shortly after his wife left for Diagon alley. Ron needed to once again hear the calming sounds of the sea. Ron remembered how he had been able to work out what he should do after abandoning Harry and Hermione during the hunt for the Horcruxes. Since then, when things seemed to be getting too much for him, Ron would return to let the crashing waves help calm his mind.

Ron had hoped that he would never need to hear the calming sounds of the sea again. The fact that he found himself here again meant that his wish had not come true. Ron was worried about Hermione. To everyone that knew her, Hermione seemed to be just fine. Ron, being her husband knew her better than anyone and he knew his wife was far from ok. Ron could see the sadness in her eyes, and he knew she was slipping into a depression. Ron was here because he needed to find a way to help her through what she was going through.

Finding Hermione in tears the other night broke Ron's heart. Hermione was one of the strongest women he knew and to see her reduced to tears was almost too much for Ron to bear. That was not the worst of it. What was worse than the tears was that Hermione thought he would leave her if she could not have his baby. How could she think he would want a family with anyone other than other than her? His devotion to Hermione was the source of many jokes and teasing from his family and coworkers. Ron had heard them all from when it came to women Ron was clueless unless her name was Granger, to being told that there was more than just one woman in the world. That may be true for everyone else. Ron had found his one true love on the Hogwarts express at the beginning of his first year.

Contrary to what everyone believed, Ron did notice other woman. Ron was painfully aware that his secretary flirted with him every chance she could. He also knew that she was frustrated at his lack of response. As she became more frustrated the more overt her flirtations became. Ron was aware that Laura was a very attractive young witch, and many of the men in the Auror corps would kill to have her flirt with them the way she did with Ron. The thing was is Ron was just not interested.

The problem as Ron saw it was proving to Hermione that he did not care if they ever had children. As long as he was with her, Ron was happy. Ron also was aware that Hermione had been looking forward to being a mum when she was pregnant with Fabian, and losing him had broken her heart. Even though they buried Fabian, and many of their friends and family thought they had moved on, they hadn't. Ron knew no matter what he told her Hermione blamed herself for Fabian's death, he would just have to help her see that was not her fault. The problem was that his wife was convinced that he was going to leave her and convincing her that was not the case the problem he had come out to the shell cottage to figure out.

"He arrived about an hour ago." Fleur answered, "He has been sitting there ever since."

Bill and Fleur were watching as through the kitchen window as Ron sat looking over the ocean. Bill remembered the last time Ron spent so much time looking out over the ocean. He had been a wreck after he arrived at the shell cottage, shortly after leaving Harry and Hermione. At the time, Bill had known that Ron was feeling a bit overwhelmed at that time, and he spent many hours just looking out over the ocean, just like he was doing now.

Bill was saddened that his youngest brother felt he could not turn to his family when he was feeling overwhelmed. Charlie had always turned to Bill for help and advice, Percy would confide in his father. The twins always had each other to turn to and Ginny, well she could go to any of her brothers, but she favored the twins and Bill. It was true of all his brothers and sister Ron was closest to Ginny, but Ron would never burden his little sister with his problems. That just was not something an older brother did.

Bill knew that a great part of the reason Ron did not confide in his family was being the youngest brother he was subjected to a great deal of teasing by his older brothers. So rather than facing the humiliation of being teased by his siblings, Ron did his best to figure things out on his own. The shame of this was, of all of Bill's brothers, Ron had the most to deal with. Being Harry Potter's best friend Ron had faced things that no one else in the Weasley ever had too. Bill was convinced that Ron had gone through far more than his family would ever know while he, Harry and Hermione were out on the hunt.

If that was not enough, Bill knew all that Ron had to go through once the final battle had been completed. Bill was not sure he could have survived the things his little brother had. Not only had Ron endured those horrors, but he did it with a strength that Bill could not believe. Bill also knew the source of that strength was the witch that Ron married, Hermione. Individually Ron and Hermione were very strong, together they were invincible.

Watching his brother, Bill knew that Ron was trying to come to grips with something involving Hermione, whatever it was, he knew it must be bad. Ron had not come to shell cottage since before his wedding. It was one of the few times that Ron had confided in Bill and he was worried that Hermione would realize she was making a huge mistake, and back out of the wedding.

Now, once again Ron was looking over the coastline of the Shell Cottage, and Bill knew whatever it was it involved Ron's wife…

Ron heard Bill's footsteps long before Bill sat down next to him. Ron fought the urge to sigh. Ron knew that all Bill wanted to do was help. Ron was just not sure that he wanted Bill's help. Ron had never gone to any of his brothers with his problems. He was afraid that his brothers would tease him about whatever it was he told them at a later time. Ron had always hated being on the receiving end of the endless jokes and teasing from his brothers and he did not want to give them any additional ammunition.

It was not as if Ron did not have someone to turn to. Over time he began to turn to Hermione whenever he needed someone to talk to. Ron never had to worry about being teased by Hermione, and no matter how badly they rowed, she never threw what they had talked about back into his face. Ron's problem was that he really could not talk with Hermione this time because she was the problem. Bill and Ron sat a while in silence. Finally Ron spoke.

"I didn't mean to bother you, I thought you were going to mum's today."

"We were," Bill answered "Victoire is not feeling well so decided to stay home." Bill noticed a brief sadness in Ron's eyes as he mentioned his daughter.

Bill and Fleur had learned she was pregnant just a couple of months after Hermione had lost Fabian. With everything that had happened to the Weasley's over the last few years, the announcement of a new Weasley coming into the world was just what the family needed. That was everyone except Ron and Hermione.

Bill had known that the couple was still trying to get over the loss of Fabian when they had made their announcement. The rest of the family was so busy celebrating they had not noticed….

The table erupted as Bill finished telling the family that he and Fleur were going to have a baby. It seemed the whole table jumped up at the same time in celebration. Bill and Fleur were quickly surrounded by Weasleys. The men pounding Bill on the back telling him things like "Well done," and Bill had laughed when George called him the luckiest man in the world while leering at Fleur. In the magic of the moment, no one had noticed that two of the family had not joined the rest of them. As Bill shook George's hand he noticed Ron gently rocking Hermione, whispering softly into her ear as she buried her head into his shoulder and cried softly.

Fleur motioned towards the couple with her eyes and Bill whispered softly to her "I'll talk to them once things have settled down.

Hermione had never felt like an outsider when she was with the Weasley family. That was until today. Hermione was surprised at her reaction to hearing that Fleur was pregnant. Rather than being happy for her brother and sister in law she felt emptiness inside. Hermione found herself thinking about Fabian and all the hurt and feelings of loss came roaring back. She could not hold back her tears. She felt Ron taking her into his arms as the tears started to flow and she buried her head into his shoulder and cried silently as the Weasley's celebrated.

Hermione was not sure when but at some point she and Ron had slipped out of the kitchen and into the living room. Hermione felt guilty about keeping Ron from his family in what was clearly a joyous occasion. Ron assured her that he did not mind. The two of them were enjoying the quite of the living room. Hermione was sitting in Mr. Weasley's favorite chair, Ron sat on the footstool holding her hands and looking into her eyes. They looked up as the heard someone enter the living room.

"Bill," Hermione greeted her eldest brother in law, "I am so sorry for being such a.."

Bill sat opposite the two of them, noticing how they were still clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it, even if they were just holding hands.

"Hermione," Bill answered. "There is no reason to be sorry. I guess all of just assumed that you and Ron were past Fabian."

"For the most part we are," Hermione reassured her brother in lay, "but sometimes it just suddenly hits me. I lost my baby…"

Hermione never finished what she was about to say, as she said the last words she choked up. Bill simply left the two of them as Ron once again took his wife into his arms…

Ron continued to sit in silence. Bill had hoped that Ron would start opening up to him, but it appeared that Ron was content to watch the sea, and handle whatever was bothering him on his own. After a few more minutes of silence Bill finally spoke.

"It's not over for you two is it?"

Bill could see that Ron did not understand his question by the way Ron looked at him.

"Fabian," Bill clarified, "You and Hermione are still not over his loss."

Bill knew this was true by the stoic look Ron gave him. Bill did not want to seem insensitive but it had been over a year and they needed to move on with their lives.

"Damn it Ron! It's been eighteen months; you and Hermione need to…"

Bill regretted his words the minute Ron interrupted him angrily.

"Bill when you've lost a child then you can talk to me about getting over it!"

As he spoke Ron's ears started to turn red, a clear danger sign that he was getting angry.

Bill quickly tried to make things better.

"Ron, I'm sorry I could have put that better what I meant to say as that it might help you and Hermione if you just tried to move past this."

"Really Bill!" Ron answered immediately, "It's just that easy, move on." Ron looked up to the sky as if praying and shouted sarcastically, "Why the hell didn't I think of that!"

Ron glared at Bill angrily.

"What the Bloody hell do you think we've been doing Bill?"

Bill did not answer; he had not meant to make things worse with his last statement.

"Ron,"

Ron looked at him and Bill could see the tears in his brothers' eyes as he spoke.

"We have been trying to move on for the last eighteen months. We've been trying. Fabian is not the problem." Ron said the last as if everyone should know this.

"You and Hermione are having another baby." Bill said happily.

Ron looked at his brother and it was clear by his expression he thought his brother was completely clueless.

"Bill, I said we were trying." Ron corrected emphasizing the word trying with his voice.

"Oh," Bill answered, then what Ron had told him dawned on him, "Oh, so you are not…"

"No so far Hermione has not gotten pregnant and it's killing her." Ron explained.

"Ron, I wish I had known, maybe I could have helped." Bill said sympathetically.

"That's not all," Ron continued as if he had not heard Bill, "My wife is convinced that I am going to leave her for the first witch that can have my baby."

Ron had not meant to tell Bill any of this but once he got started the words just seemed to pour out of him.

Bill just looked at Ron as he continued speaking and he found himself wondering how Hermione could think Ron would want to be with anyone else.

"My wife is slipping deeper and deeper into a depression and I don't know what to do about it." As he finished Ron sounded very worried.

Bill found himself at a loss for words. It was clear that Ron and Hermione were having serious problems. Bill was not surprised that no one else in the family had noticed. Over the years Ron and Hermione had gotten very good at hiding things. Being Harry Potter's best friends they would have had to. That was no excuse, it was clear that Ron was hurting and Bill was willing to bet if anyone would watch Hermione for a bit they would see it in her as well. Bill knew no one had really paid much attention to Ron and Hermione. Harry and Ginny were the new couple in the family and everyone seemed focused on them. Once again relegating Ron and Hermione to the background, where any good sidekick belonged. The thing was Ron and Hermione were family too, not just merely Harry's sided kicks.

Before Bill could say anything, a loud tone interrupted them. When the tone was completed Ron's emergency pager sounded.

"Rapid Response team respond to 94 Diagon Alley for an armed assault in progress. Multiple reports coming in of an assault in progress."

Ron and Bill looked at each other, 94 Diagon Alley was George's shop.

"Hermione!" Ron disapparated before Bill could ask him what he meant.

Rollo Tamasi watched from his vantage point as his mark stopped to look at a shop window. Rollo was waiting for a clear shot to take out the mark. So far due to the crowds of people one had not presented itself. Rollo was getting tired; this had turned into a long day.

Rollo and his crew arrived at Diagon Alley just before the shops opened. They wanted to make sure they found the mark as she entered through the Leaky Cauldron. Rollo smile to himself, ban in the day a hit like this would be impossible. Your mark could have apparated into the Alley anywhere, making it almost impossible to find ones mark unless they knew where they would be. With the new security measures, the only way into the Alley was through the leaky cauldron, unless you had permission from one of the shop keeper to use their floo. You see in its infinite wisdom the ministry had put up anti apparition wards similar to the Hogwarts wars over the alley. This was to prevent attacks like those that had occurred during the second war. With only one way into the Alley finding their mark was just a matter of waiting.

The crew had been waiting a couple of hours when the mark finally arrived. That was when the problems started. The first major problem was the mark was not alone as they were told she would be. The second issue was being the woman accompanying the mark the two women had gone to the ladies room and cast disillusionment spells on them selves. Luckily the team had been watching when the mark went to the ladies room. The room had been empty when they went in, so they knew the two women leaving were their marks, even though they had been disguised.

Rollo was not really happy with this job. Normally he would just take out the mark with a quick killing curse, no muss no fuss. The client wanted the marks death to appear to be part of a terrorist attack on the alley. That ruled out the killing curse. Furthermore, they might have to take out a few innocent bystanders to sell the terrorist attack ruse. In addition Rollo really did not fancy the idea of the possibility of getting into a duel with Hermione Weasley. The client had assured him that Mrs. Weasley was not the accomplished duelist the Quibbler and Prophet made her out to be. The client explained that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were the ones actually won the duels credited to Mrs. Weasley and her role in those duels had been greatly exaggerated.

Watching the two women as they went about their business, Rollo was not so sure the client was right. The two women were always aware of their surroundings. When they were in a shop the never had their backs to the door. The client was wrong about one thing; this was not going to be an easy job.

Hermione laughed as she imagined how Ron would react to at seeing her in the outfit she and Ginny were looking it. He would throw a fit at seeing Ginny in something that skimpy, her he would just drag to the nearest bed as fast as he could and…well that was the reason Hermione decided the buy it. Ginny was right, she and Ron needed to make love because the wanted to, not because they were trying to make a baby. Once she completed her purchase, she and Ginny stepped back out into Diagon alley. Hermione looked at her sister law and asked.

"What next?"

Ginny just smiled at her mischievously.

"Well, we could stop in the shop today and…"

Hermione interrupted before she could finish.

"Ginny I'm just not up…"

"Hermione," it was Ginny's turn to interrupt, "Ron is a partner in the store whether he wants to be or not."

Ginny jabbed at her friend's handbag.

"And you are still the vice president of…"

"Okay, Okay," Hermione yielded.

George had been trying to meet her and Ron over the last month. Right after the war the ministry had given each of the Golden Trio and handsome reward for as the Minister of Magic had said "A fate too terrible to imagine.

Ron and Hermione had pooled their money, using some of it to buy and furnish the home of their dreams. The rest they had offered to George to help rebuild Weasley's Wizard Wizard's Wheezes. In addition to the money they had given George for the shop, George had been fascinated by Hermione's beaded bag.

He had her show teach him the charms she had used to create her bag. Not long after she had taught him the charms Weasley's started carrying a new line of purses and bags called Grangers, based on Hermione's beaded bag. Much to George's delight the bags were a runaway hit. Not just in England but all over the world. To accommodate the demand George formed the Granger Corporation, naming Hermione as the president of the company.

The money that Ron had given George as well as the handbag and Hermione's role in the new company had become a source of contention between the three of them. The first argument was with regards to Hermione's being named President of the Granger Corporation. Hermione made it clear to George that she had no interest in running a corporation. George had responded by telling her she would not have to he would, but since the Granger was her invention she deserved the title, and more importantly the money that came with that title. Hermione refused, stating the idea to mass produce the bags had been George's idea, and that he should benefit from his hard work. In the end she agreed to be a silent partner in the Granger Corporation, with her profits being re-invested in the business.

The fight between Ron and George came about when George tried to pay back the money Ron had given him for the shop. Ron had refused to accept the money; making it clear to George the money had never been a loan but a brother helping family. George responded by telling Ron that he would re invest the money into the shop, and since Ron had invested in the shop that he was now a partner in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Furthermore as long as the tow of them refused payments of their share of the profits from both businesses, those profits would be reinvested in the business, increasing their shares in both businesses.

This seemed to be a workable solution to the issue. That was until the Goblin's informed George that he needed to let his majority share holders know what was happening with the businesses. Hermione had learned this from Ginny. Ron and Hermione were not the only ones to help George after the war. If Harry and Ginny could meet with George, she could as well. It was with this in mind that she reluctantly agreed to meet with George.

As they were on their way to meet with George, Hermione stopped to look at a cart that was selling fine watches. Hermione wanted to get something nice for Ron; she knew he could use a new watch. He was still wearing his uncle's watch that had been given to him when he came of age. Ron being Ron never complained about the battered watch, but Hermione felt he deserved a new one for putting up with her over the last few months.

As she was looking at one of the nicer watches, a stout wizard bumped into her. He quickly excused himself, and started to go around her. As he was stepping around her, he suddenly grimaced in pain and fell down. As she started to kneel down to see what was wrong with the man she saw three flashes. Recognizing the flashes as spellfire, she shouted to Ginny as she flattened herself to the ground.

"Ginny down!"

All the practice with Ron and Harry paid off. Ginny didn't question Hermione's command and she quickly ducked behind the cart opposite Hermione as the curses slammed into the cart.

Rollo watched in frustration as the cutting curse he had fired hit a man as he walked around Granger. He was then surprised at how quickly Granger reacted, quickly flattening herself to the ground. Rollo was not happy as the remaining curses the team had fired at Granger missed her, slamming into to vendor's cart. Rollo quickly fired two more quick cutting curses at Granger, knowing there was no way she could get out of the way…

Ginny watched in horror as several more curses were fired in their direction. She knew that her sister law was exposed and would not be able to dodge these curses. Ginny quickly cast a shield charm, blocking them. The shield charm quickly collapsed as the three curses impacted against it. It was then, that Ginny realized that this was not some random attack. The attackers were targeting Hermione.

Ginny could not be sure but it appeared there were at least three attackers. She quickly fired off a blasting hex towards an alley she had seen one of the last curses fired at them.

The crowds of shoppers at first seemed unaware of the spells being fired at the two witches. That changed when Ginny's blasting hex slammed into a shield charm cast by one of the attackers with a loud bang from the impact. Now aware of what was going on, no one on the street wanted to caught in the middle of a firefight and started to flee.

Hermione still on the ground knew her attackers would not be able to get a clear shot at her through the crowd. She quickly got up and cast a blink spell. The blink spell was on of George's new spells. The spell allowed the caster to mover short distance of up to about a hundred feet. Since the caster was only moving a short distance the blink spell was not affected by anti apparition wards.

Once she was safely next to Ginny she looked towards the street. She saw several more wounded, most appeared to have been trampled as the crowd of shoppers tired to get away from the firefight. Several others had fallen victim to curses that had been fired at her and Ginny. As she was looking over the carnage, several more curses were fired in her direction. The cart shook as the curses slammed into it. Hermione realized they could not stay here. Eventually the cart would be destroyed leaving the two of them with no cover.

The problem was the two of them would be out in the open with no cover if they tried to make a run for it. Hermione quickly fired off a couple of stunning spells in the direction the last curses had been fired from. The fact that their attackers wanted to stay hidden for the time being, gave the girls a small advantage.

The other question was where to go when they made their break. Hermione knew that many of the shopkeepers would have locked their doors the minute firefight started. Disapparating was out due the anti apparition wards. Blinking was just not practical due to the range limitations of the spell. She wondered if George might make his way down to see what was going on. Wait a minute! Hermione could not believe she did not think of George's shop the minute things had started. If she and Ginny could make it to the shop, they could keep their attackers at bay until help arrived.

The two witches had as they had been trained to do, split the alley into two quadrants, each of them concentrating on the area in front and to the left of them. By doing this, the two of them were able to keep their attackers from charging them with a steady stream of curses and hexes. As she fired off another blasting hex in the direction she thought her attackers were, she got Ginny's attention just as she fired of a reducto curse.

Rollo swore loudly as another blasting hex went by him, exploding into the wall a few feet behind him, debris from the wall hitting him in the black giving him more small cuts and bruises. This was suppose to be and easy job! His employer had been wrong, unlike he had been told, both the Granger bitch and the Weasley girl knew how to fight. In fact they were quite good. He noticed that they were not trying to take out their attackers, but to force them to stay where they were at. He knew the two women were trying to hold them off until help arrived.

Rollo had to break the stalemate. Rollo fired off a blasting hex followed bay a redactor curse at the cart the two were using for cover. He would force them into the open.

Hermione swore as the cart rocked and started to collapse after being hit by the last two spells. The cart would not survive another combined attack like the last one. They had to get out of there.

"Ginny." She hissed.

The redhead did not look at her as she fired off another blasting hex where she had seen spellfire originate. Hermione also fired of several curses in the direction she thought additional attackers were hiding.

"We need to get out of here!"

This time Ginny looked at her.

"Ya think!" She answered sarcastically, firing off several more curses and hexes. "I hope you have a plan."

Hermione really would not call it a plan, but she had an idea. She quickly explained to Ginny what she had in mind as the two continued to fire spells at their unseen enemies. As she finished, Ginny nodded her understanding.

"On the count of three." Whispered Hermione, once she saw that Ginny understood she quickly counted down from three.

When she finished the two said "Fumilus"

Their wands immediately began to send out heavy smoke. They let their wands emit the heavy smoke until the street around them was filled with the thick smoke obscuring the view of the street around them. Ending the smoke spell the witches each cast a mirror image of them selves, and sent their phantasms running away from them.

Tomasi did his best to keep his eye on the two witches through the thick smoke. Soon he was only able to make out an outline of the cart the two women had been using for cover. Rollo knew if he could not see the mark, she could not see him. He whispered through the communication charm. "Let's go"

Taking advantage of the thick smoke, Rollo and his team started to move slowly towards the damaged cart. When he was about halfway to his destination he caught a glimpse of two figures making a run for it. Tomasi smiled, like taking candy from a babe he thought as he fired a cutting charm at Granger. He let out a whoop when his curse hit home…

Ginny watched as Hermione's phantasm was cut down by a curse. Ginny heard the sound of someone celebrating in the thick smoke. Without thinking Ginny fired a bludgeoning curse in the direction of the sound. She was rewarded with the sound of someone losing their breath and a thud a few seconds later. That was when Ginny remembered Hermione telling her not to cast any spells. Ginny saw that Hermione was glaring at her, not wanting to make any noise that would give away their position she hissed "Let's go."

As the two of them started to sprint Ginny heard several shouts in the smoke.

"It's a decoy!"

Then another "There they are."

They must have turned n the direction that Ginny's spell had come from and seen them. Ginny then felt several curses fly by as she ran. She then turned and fired off a blasting hex down the street, hoping to make the wizard's chasing them duck for cover.

As the two of them ran, Hermione cast the smoke screen charm again keeping the smoke pouring behind the two of them as they ran…

George sat behind the counter, wondering what was going on outside. He had been helping a customer when they had been disturbed by the sound of shouting outside. George looked up to running in the street, clearly panicked. As he usually did he opened the door to the shop, offering shelter to the panicking witches and wizards. He was surprised when no one took him up on his offer. Once the crowd had thinned out, George closed and locked his door.

A few minutes later he heard the sound of spell fire approaching. The street then started to fill with smoke as well. That was enough to get him to start activating the protective wards on the shop. As he was starting the incantations to bring the wards up he heard someone from the street shout "Effingo."

The door flew open, slamming against the wall shattering the glass in both the door and the shops windows.

Hermione barely kept from falling as she felt like she had been punched hard in her shoulder. Luckily it was not her wand arm. The last couple of minutes seemed to last forever. The smoke screen prevented their pursuers from having a clear shot at the two of them. The thing was, with the amount of curses being fired at them, they were bound to get hit. Ginny was the first to be hit, taking a cutting curse to the side leaving a large gash in her left side. Hermione had been nicked by some curses, this time she knew by the way her shoulder felt she had been hit dead on this time.

She was grateful for the training sessions with Ron and Harry. Without them she would have been dead already. Hermione had no doubt that she was the target of this attack and the nature of the curses being used was enough to figure out whomever it was behind the attack wanted her dead. As the two of them rounded the corner, she was relieved to finally see Weasley's Wizards. Her relief was short lived; the door was closed and probably locked.

Not taking any chances she pointed her wand at the door and shouted the incantation for the battering ram charm. The door was blasted open and she heard the glass from the door and windows shatter. The two of them wasted no time getting into the shop. Ginny cast "Clausus," and a magical barricade came up in front of the doors and windows, blocking several more curses that had been fired at them.

"What the hell?" George roared as the two women blasted their way into his shop. At first he did not recognize them. Realizing quickly the two women were his sister and sister in law, he quickly finished bringing up the wards around the shop. Spells continued to hit the wards, but they could not get through them.

George then took in the condition the two of them. Ginny was bruised all over, and bleeding badly from her left side. Hermione was just as bruised as Ginny, her left arm hanging useless at her side blood dripping from her fingers. The sound of several more spells hitting the wards was all George needed to encourage him to pick up his phone.

He quickly dialed the ministries emergency number.

It seemed like hours, but it was only a few minutes when George heard the pop of disapparation. George knew this meant the anti apparition wards had been bought down by the ministry. After another minute he heard Harry's voice.

"it's all clear out here George, you can open up."


	7. Mass Casualty

Authors Note

First I am sorry for how long it has taken to get this chapter posted. I have been sidetracked by some other projects and you can see those on You Tube under the name jgill63 if you are interested. In addition to be honest it has been difficult to get motivated to write this chapter as no one appears to be reading this story. I am going to finish this story and hope many of you will stick with it. I also do enjoy reviews so feel free to leave me one...

7

Ron slammed his hand against the wall, ; he was getting more and more agitated the longer he had to wait for the team to arrive. Ron found himself questioning the intelligence of the idiot that had required the RRT to stage before responding to an incident. All Ron knew is that something was happening at Diagon Alley, and considering George's shop was the target that meant that Hermione was in trouble. Ron knew the longer they waited to get to the scene, the greater the chance of something happening to his wife. The only reason he had not already disapparated is he had to wait for the anti-apparition

wards on Diagon Alley to be lowered.

Ron continued to pace for what seemed like forever when Harry apparated into the room. Ron quickly approached his best friend, but before he could say anything Harry held up his hand and said, "I don't have a lot of information Ron. The attack started a couple of blocks from the shop."

Not noticing Harry's hesitation, Ron breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe Hermione and Ginny weren't involved after all.

"From what I can understand from the reports, someone is fighting the attackers."

Ron felt his heart stop as Harry finished. He was about to ask Harry if he know who it was, but he did not need to. The worried look on his friend's face told him all he needed to know.

"Bloody hell." He swore softly "What the hell are they thinking?"

Harry just nodded his head in agreement as the rest of the team arrived. Harry looked at his watch. Ron knew Harry was checking on the team's response time. Ron looked at his watch and was surprised to see only a couple of minutes had passed since he got his page. It seemed like a lot longer.

Harry quickly briefed the team. An attack was under way at Diagon Alley. The attackers were currently trying to get into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The number of attackers was unknown and there were friendlies in the store. Once the team was briefed, Harry radioed to have the anti-apparition wards over the alley bought down and the team disapparated as one.

Ron quickly found cover as he took in his surroundings. He was just a couple of blocks away from the shop. The street was a wreck; many of the storefronts had been damaged by spellfire. In addition to the debris from the damaged shops, about ten to fifteen injured in various conditions could be seen on the street. Ron noticed an overturned vendor's cart across the street; someone must have used the cart for cover, since it appeared to have been hit by several curses. Seeing no hostile activity, Ron keyed his radio

"Inspector 101."

"Go Ahead 101," the radio answered.

"Have St Mungo's initiate a Mass Casualty Response to Diagon Alley. We have multiple injuries at this location."

As Ron finished the rest of the team arrived, Ron quickly signaled the all clear to the team and they began to move towards the shop. Ron felt his heart pounding as the team moved cautiously up the street. It appeared that there had been a running fight since several more stores had their facades blown in by spellfire. Ron could see additional bodies lying in the street and even more injured taking cover in the shops. The only sound came from the wounded, ; it appeared that whatever had happened was already over. Seeing the carnage, Ron could only pray that Hermione and Ginny were okay.

It did not take long for the team to get to the block that Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was on. Ron gasped when he saw the condition of the store; it took all of Ron's willpower to keep him from rushing into the store. The front door had been blasted open and hung by a single hinge. All the windows had also been blown out. The large Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes sign now had several blast marks. The condition of the store was not what had Ron worried; he was concerned about the fact that not a sound could be heard. Ron watched patiently as the team set up a perimeter and Harry spoke into his radio. Harry shouted to the shop, "George."

Luna really did not want to be at work today. She would rather be spending the day at Diagon Alley with Ginny and Hermione, but she just had too much paperwork to do. Luna smiled to herself as she realized that over the last couple of years, she and Hermione had become good friends. This had occurred despite the fact that the two women had dramatically different views on almost everything. Hermione found comfort in logic and facts, while Luna prided herself on having an open mind. Where Hermione needed solid proof in something before she would accept it, Luna believed things just on pure faith.

Luna knew that left her open to being the brunt of a lot of jokes while in school. She was still on the receiving end of some jokes at work. Luna was always willing to try new things. While that made her the target of the jokes, it was also what made Luna a good healer. Luna had never thought about becoming a healer while she was at school. She always planned to help her father run The Quibbler. Luna had figured when she left school, she would start as a staff writer and gradually learn the family business from her father. Sixth year changed everything.

That year Hogwarts was a nightmare. With Death Eaters as teachers, many of the Slytherins as well as fanatical members of other houses were given a free hand to go after the blood traitors at the school. Luna tried to stay above it all that was until she had been raped. After that, Luna joined with Ginny and Neville's resistance. Mostly they would free students that were being tortured or locked in the dungeons. Shortly after they had started freeing the victims of the Carrows' brand of punishment, the Carrows enacted a rule that no student could receive medical attention without their approval. Madame Pomphrey ignored the rule once. A young woman had been put in detention by the Carrows. Luna was not sure what happened between the girl and the Carrows, but she had been given to the Slytherin seventh year boys. After enduring several hours of being violated and tortured, she had been released. The girl went straight to the hospital wing.

The Carrows would not give permission for the girl to be treated for her injuries. Madam Pomphrey ignored the Carrows and treated the girl anyway. Madam Pomphrey paid a high price and after that would not treat students not approve them for treatment at St. Mungo's.

After that, the DA decided it would be best if one of their members learned to treat those that needed it. After a brief debate, Luna was chosen to learn basic healing. Madame Pomphrey with the blessing of Snape began training as an assistant healer.

Luna excelled as the DA's "Medic," catching on to many of the healing techniques quickly. Madame Pomphrey told her she was a natural healer. The fact that she had plenty of practice helped her to study more advanced healing. Luna found that she liked being a healer, so when the war ended she continued her healing training during her seventh year. With two years of healer training, Luna graduated from Hogwarts as a fully qualified Mediwizard. Luna accepted a job at St. Mungos while continuing her healing training.

Kingsley Shacklebolt had been greatly disturbed about the lack of medical resources available after the Battle of Hogwarts. He had been convinced that many of those that had died could have been saved with prompt medical attention. Having worked for the Muggle Prime Minister, he was well aware of the muggle EMS services. He wanted to start a similar program in the Wizarding world.

St. Mungo's resisted the idea, arguing that the muggle ways of doing things just did not belong in Wizarding medicine. Wizards had been practicing medicine the same way for hundreds of years and there was no reason to change it. Kinglsey continued to push his program. It was about this time that news articles about what Hogwarts was like under the Carrows had been written. The articles not only documented the conditions at Hogwarts, but how some students stood up to the Carrows. One article that caught Kingsley's eye was about how the students were on their own for most medical needs that year and how Luna fulfilled that need. Kingsley had been impressed with what he learned and he asked Luna if she would consider his new program.

Since St Mungo's had no established training program in trauma, Luna trained with the London Ambulance corps in the field and at a London Trauma center. After two years, Luna was not only a fully qualified Healer, but also the first Wizarding trauma specialist. Once she finished her training, the real work began for Luna.

Luna patterned the new EMS department at St Mungo's after the London EMS System. She had all the mediwizards at St. Mungos train with the London EMS service for at least eight weeks. They resisted at first, but once they got into the field they saw the benefit of training with the Muggles. Luna then secured funding to have several wizarding ambulances made. The ambulances worked much like the Knight Bus, but provided a stable way to transport the injured to the new casualty ward at St. Mungo's.

She staffed the ward with several of her classmates that had been impressed by the training she had received. She had those candidates train at a muggle trauma center. The entire process had taken a couple of years, but she was proud with the end result.

Luna normally did not mind coming in on a Saturdays, so she could catch up on her paperwork. She was able to get more work done on Saturdays because they were slower. Today was different. She wanted to be with Ginny and Hermione. The three witches very rarely got a chance to just hang out because each of them had a very busy schedule. Luna sighed as she started on another tedious weekly report. Suddenly, an alarm in the Casualty Ward went off.

Luna jumped out of her seat, as the intercom came to life.

"Medics 1, 4, 6 respond to 94 Diagon Alley. Reports of a Mass Casualty incident in progress. St Mungo's Casualty, prepare to receive multiple patients."

Luna quickly changed into a jumper and rushed into the ambulance bay.

Luna waived her wand and the image of a red cross appeared above the man she had just examined. Luna quickly moved a short distance and began assessing a middle-aged witch. Seeing she was conscious, Luna spoke to her in a soothing voice.

"My name is Luna, what is yours?"

"Anna," the witch answered softly.

Luna began checking Anna for any obvious injuries. As she assessed Anna's physical injuries, she continued to talk to her.

"Anna, can you tell me what day it is?"

"Saturday," Anna responded.

"Who is the Minister of Magic?"

"Cornelius Fudge." Luna frowned at her answer.

Luna asked a few more questions designed to help assess her patient's awareness and mental condition. She then waived her wand and a yellow cross appeared above her. The colors of the crosses were signals to other mediwizards; it identified a patient's condition and the order in which he should be treated and transported. Red meant the patient's injuries were critical and he needed to be stabilized and transported immediately. Yellow meant injuries were serious but not life-threatening, so treatment and transportation could be delayed. Green meant the injuries were relatively minor and could be treated last and in most cases at the scene. Black meant the patient was dead. So far they had been lucky with only one code black.

Luna continued to work up the street. Quickly assessing patients and moving to the next as fast as she could. Luna would only treat those that without immediate treatment would die. In those cases, she would stabilize the patient the best she could, then mark them with a red cross. The main job of the triage specialist was to set the order of treatment for the injured.

As Luna finished assessing the last patient on the street, she could hear Ron shouting at someone in George's shop.

"Bloody hell," Ron said angrily. "You are still bleeding and that arm looks like it has been broken!"

Luna made her way into the Weasley's shop and was not surprised that Ron was shouting at his wife. She looked pale. Her left shoulder was clearly dislocated, as her arm was hanging limply at her side. What concerned Luna was the blood dripping from her fingers. Judging by the pool of blood on the floor, Hermione had lost a lot of blood. Luna took a quick look around the room. Ginny was the only other one in the room that was injured. She had a large gash on her side, but she was looking at Ron and Hermione as they argued. Luna sighed. Luna did not have a lot of regular patients. Actually her only patients were the Weasley family and the Golden Trio. Out of all of them, Hermione was by far the hardest of her patients. The problem was Hermione would usually try and treat herself before seeking medical attention. This had been a running argument between the two witches, ever since Luna had agreed to take her as a patient.

Luna quickly walked over to Hermione. Noticing a figure walking towards them, Ron looked to see who was approaching and breathed a sigh of relief to see Luna.

"Luna, thank Merlin you're here." He gestured towards Hermione, "Maybe you can talk some sense into my wife."

Luna kneeled in front of Hermione and spoke to her brightly, "Hi, Hermione."

Hermione smiled back weakly.

"Luna, it's good to see you."

"You too. Why don't you let me take a look here?"

Hermione shook her head negatively and tried to pull away from her.

"Luna, I am sure there are people hurt worse than I am. You should…"

"Hermione," Luna interrupted calmly, "I'll make a deal with you. Why don't you let me be the healer and you just stick to magical law, ok?"

Hermione chuckled. This last statement had become a running joke between the two witches. After Hermione had been sick for a bit, Ron had asked Luna to come over for dinner. Once she had seen Hermione's condition, she told her she wanted to examine her. Hermione had told her she was fine and was taking care of whatever it was. Luna had shouted at her exactly what she had just said at Diagon Alley and proceeded to examine her friend. Hermione did not argue anymore and let Luna treat her.

Ron felt his blood run cold as he put down the last of the witness statements from the attack on Diagon Alley. He stared at the stack of statements for a minute or two trying to take in what he read. Even though the attack was a couple of days old, it was still making the front pages of the Wizarding papers. The papers were crying for greater security and protection for the common wizard in light of the attack.

After reading the witness statement, Ron knew that tighter security was not going to help. If he was reading correctly, the attack was not a random terrorist act; the attackers had a target.

"Bloody hell," Ron swore as he stood up.

It did not take him long to get to Harry's office. Harry looked up as he asked.

"I take it you've finished reviewing the witness statements?"

Ron just nodded his head affirmative as he sat down. He looked at his best friend.

"We could be wrong." Even as he said it, he knew that was not the case. One of the girls was the target of the weekend's attacks.

"Ron," Harry knew his friend was dying inside, "She'll be ok."

Ron nodded. He did not doubt that. Hermione could take care of herself, besides from now on she would be assigned a protective detail. The challenge would be to get her to accept one. They would worry about that later. Right now they had a few other things to work out.

"So, is she a target because she is a Ministry official or because she is a war hero?" Harry asked.

"Ministry official," Ron answered immediately.

"How do you figure?" Harry asked.

This was the way the two of them worked. One would put out an idea and the other would have them present arguments supporting it. So far the system had worked well for them.

"The Department of Magical Law has had one deputy director killed already. Hermione is the other deputy."

Harry nodded in agreement.

"So someone is going after the Department of Magical Law. Why?"

Ron thought about Harry's question for a few minutes before answering.

"That I don't know, but I know where to start asking."

"The Bannon School." Harry answered.

Ron nodded. It made sense. William Devin had been killed shortly after his visit to the school. Bukovic had connections to the school and Hermione had been attacked shortly after he and Harry had paid the school a visit. There were too many connections to the school for them to ignore.

"I think we should pay another visit to the esteemed Mr. ," Ron said as he stood up.

"Did you have anything to do with this?" Bannon threw down a copy of the Daily Prophet as he finished his question.

Edison looked at the paper, and after reading the headline he answered hotly.

"No."

"Because of this, we had another visit from Weasley and Potter," Bannon continued as if he never heard Edison's answer. "We really don't need attention from the aurors."

Edison glared at Bannon. Even though he had nothing to do with the attacks in the papers, he thought that whoever was behind them had the right idea. Wizards in general needed to be knocked down a few rungs Edison thought. Wizards always seemed to think they were better than common muggles. Edison had learned that lesson the hard way after having been banished; the few banished wizards had regretted their previous disdain.

Edison fought back the urge to smile.

"So what did the esteemed aurors have to say this time?" Bannon asked sarcastically.

"You bloody fool," Bannon spat back angrily, "Hermione Weasley is a decorated war hero, and loved by the magical community."

Edison looked at Bannon coolly and calmly stated.

"Once again, I had nothing to do with this." Edison paused before speaking to Smyth, "Whoever it was had the right idea."

Bannon just looked at Edison, dumbfounded. He clearly did not know how to respond to his statement. Before Bannon could say anything, Edison spoke.

"It was the damn Ministry that banished us from our society. Now the ministry is once again threatening to undo all we have built." Edison said angrily, "We need to do something before they do."

Bannon just stared at Edison, clearly not believing what he heard. Before Bannon could retort, Smyth spoke up.

"I agree it is troubling to have the Ministry at our door again, but let's wait and see what they do before we declare war on them."

Edison looked at Smyth. He was getting tired of this. He needed to do something and he was not about to wait for Smyth to wake up before it was too late. It was time to make the Ministry pay for what they had done to him. He was not going to wait anymore. He would just take matters into his own hands….


	8. Tears

Authors Note

First off I would like to thank ObsessedRHShipper for the hard work she is putting in betaing the forsaken. That is no small task considering some of the mistakes I have been known to make. She has been a great help in making these chapters readable. I also want to thank my friend Nancy Kelleher who not only introduced me to the world of Harry Potter but has helped as a sounding board for some of my crazy Ideas.

I know this chapter took a bit of time to post, however for me this was one of the more difficult chapters I have ever had to write. A lot of what happens with Ron and Hermione in this chapter are taken out of things that have happened with me in the past. This chapter has been re written dozens of times before coming up with this final draft. So I will not torture you all with any more of my ramblings. Here it is...Chapter 8

8

Tears

_All of the Seasons_

_And all of the days_

_All of the reasons_

_Why I've felt this way_

_So long _

_So long _

Ron

Ron saw that all the lights were off as he walked into the house. Hermione must already be asleep he thought. Ron was a little worried; Hermione would usually stay up and sit with him while he ate his dinner. They would talk about almost anything from the type of day they had to Hermione's latest crusade. Ron loved their evening talks. Lately however, Hermione had taken to going to sleep before Ron would get home. Ron missed their talks. Actually, when he thought about it, he missed his wife.

Hermione had been rather distant since the attack on Diagon Alley a couple of weeks ago. Actually, if he was going to be honest with himself, she had been a bit off before the attack. Since the attack, it had gotten worse. It was like she was trying to avoid him. The talks weren't the only things he missed. They hadn't been intimate in some time now. Ron theorized that if they did not make love, then Hermione would not be disappointed when she got her monthly. Ron knew he had to do something to help her, but the thing was he just had no idea what to do.

Ron quietly hung up his coat and headed towards the kitchen to fix himself some dinner. As he walked past the entrance to the living room, he caught the shape of someone sitting in the darkened room. Ron quickly drew his wand, as he took cover by the wall. Ron felt his heart pounding as he looked into the living room to get a better look. Ron did not need to light his wand to recognize the figure sitting in the chair, but still Ron pointed his wand at the lights to turn them on.

The first thing Ron noticed once the lights came on was the suitcases sitting next to the chair. He looked at Hermione and she had not seemed to notice him. He could see that she had been crying because of the tearstains on her cheeks. Ron just stared at her for a few minutes, trying to think of what to say. He knew what was coming; he just hoped deep inside he was wrong. After a brief uncomfortable silence, he asked, trying to sound casual, "Going somewhere?"

Hermione did not answer, but just continued to stare into the distance. He knew she had heard him, since she had started at the sound of his voice. Ron did not say anything more; he just waited for Hermione to answer.

**Hermione**

_Then lost in that feeling _

_I looked in your eyes_

_I noticed a motion_

_and that you had cried _

_for me_

_I can see_

Hermione bit her lower lip. She was nervous. She knew Ron was not going to like what she had to say. She had considered just leaving him a note. In the end, she decided she could not do that to him. She still loved him with all that she had. It was because she loved Ron that she was doing this. She knew she could not give him what he wanted. Ron was a Weasley and family was everything to a Weasley. Hermione could not give Ron the family he wanted. She had to do what was right for him; her feelings did not matter.

Hermione also knew that Ron loved her more than anything, so he would never say anything about not having children. He would stay with her no matter what. She would have to be the one to do what needed to be done. It was up to her to leave. She knew Ron would be hurt at first, but in the end, he would move on and find a woman to have a family with. Hermione hated herself for having to hurt Ron, but in the long run this was what was best for the two of them. Well Ron, not her. She would always love the idiot.

Well, best to get this over with, she thought to herself as she answered him.

"I need to figure some things out." She answered Ron softly.

Ron looked at her for a minute; she swore he was reading every thought. Hermione felt her heart pounding as he answered.

"Ok," he stepped towards her. She put her hands up.

"Ron, please."

Ron stopped.

"Mione," he practically whispered. She could hear the hurt in his voice as he continued, "We can figure them out together."

Hermione fought the urge to just run to him. She needed to be strong and had to do the best thing for Ron, regardless of how she felt.

She shook her head as she answered, "Ron, this is something I have to do on my own."

Ron

_What would touch me deeper_

_Tears that fall from eyes that only cry_

_Would it touch you deeper _

_Tears that fall from eyes_

_That know why._

Ron fought to control his temper as Hermione finished. He knew what she was doing, but she just did not have the courage to say it.

"So, you are leaving?"

"I'm not leaving," Hermione answered, "I just…"

"Bullocks," Ron did not let her finish. He finally lost control of his temper. No matter how she tried to sugar coat it, she was leaving him.

Hermione did not answer him. She stood up, but made no attempt to leave.

"Are you giving up on us?" He asked.

She looked up at him. "I'm doing what's best for the both of us."

Ron laughed bitterly. "How do you know your leaving is what's best for me?"

Hermione looked away.

"Hermione, you haven't bothered to ask me what I think is best, have you?"

Hermione just stared at him. He could see by her stance that her mind was made up. Nothing he would say would change it. So he did the hardest thing he would ever do in his life, he let her go with one last thought.

"When you have things figured out, I will still be here."

Hermione levitated her suitcase. As she walked by him, she grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You deserve someone that can give you everything."

Ron did not let her finish.

"Hermione, just go."

Ron watched as she walked out the door. As the door slammed, Ron sat down wondering what he was to do now that she was gone….

Hermione

_A lifetime of questions_

_Tears on your cheeks_

_I tasted the answer _

_And my body grew week_

_For you_

_The Truth. _

As soon as Hermione walked out the door, she disapparated. She had not really thought about where she would go once she left. Her plan was to go and stay with her parents. The more she thought about that as she waited for Ron to get home, the more she felt that was not the best idea. The first problem would be the questions she would get from her parents. She really did not feel like explaining everything that had been going on to them. Once they learned about everything, it would be just like telling them about the war. They would want to know why she had kept things from them. No, she could not face the questions.

The other problem with her parents is that would be the first place Ron would go once he got over the shock of her leaving. She tried to forget the pained look her husband gave her as she walked out the door. She had almost lost her resolve a second time when he told her he would still be there when she was ready. That was one of the things that she loved about Ron. He knew just what she needed. She could not afford to lose her resolve. She told herself this was the best thing for Ron.

Emily

_What would touch me deeper_

_Tears that fall from eyes that only cry_

_Would it touch you deeper _

_Tears that fall from eyes_

_That know why._

Emily cursed as she heard the knock on her door. If more fans had gotten past security, she would raise hell. It's not that she was bothered by her fans a lot. Hell, she was able to ride the tube and no one bothered her. Sure they would ask her if she was the girl from those movies. Usually all she had to do was deny it was her. She would say something like, "You are barking. Do you really think someone that famous would ride the tube?"

That was usually answered with a "You're right. Someone that famous would never stoop down to riding the tube like some…" The last of the statement usually varied a bit, but always implied how stuck up that person probably was. Emily found this to be very amusing. People tended to put her on some kind of pedestal, but when push came to shove, she was just a normal girl. She just got paid very well to pretend.

Emily sighed, as another knock sounded from her door. Well, she had better see who it was. She looked through the peephole, and was surprised to see who her visitor was. She quickly opened the door.

"Hermione!" She pulled her friend into a hug. As she did this, she noticed the suitcases in the hall. She pulled back and looked at her.

"I was wondering if I could stay with you a few days," she asked.

"Of course, you can," She went to help Hermione with her suitcases, but Hermione had already started to levitate them into her flat. As the two of them headed towards the living room, she asked. "So, what's going on?"

Emily was shocked when Hermione answered.

"Not a lot. I've just left Ron."

Hermione

Hermione's friendship with Emily Watts had come as a complete surprise to her. She met Emily while she was dating Harry, and the two of them just clicked. Hermione had not realized it, but she did need a friend outside the magical world. Emily was also very intelligent and dedicated to learning just like her. Actually, when she thought about it, she and Emily had very similar personalities, which is probably why they got on so well.

Once Hermione decided she would not be able to go to her parents, Emily was the next logical choice. She really did not have any friends in the magical world that were not connected to either Harry or Ron in some way. There was Ginny, but Hermione knew Ginny would feel the need to take sides, and she would choose her brother. Emily was also someone not many in the magical world knew she was close to. Most of Harry's friends thought Emily had dropped out of the magical world when she broke up with Harry. It was true that Emily was not comfortable with magic and would have trouble getting on with a pureblood witch like Ginny. Hermione was muggleborn, so when she had to, she could get by without magic. That was something that could not be said for Ginny.

"Hermione," Emily said sympathetically, "I thought you and Ron would make it. What happened?"

Hermione smiled sadly. She and Ron would have made it, but the fact remained she could not give him the family he wanted, so she let him go.

"The truth is we really were not having problems. Merlin, forgive me, but I love that man with all my heart. That is why I had to leave." She answered sadly.

Over the next hour, Hermione told Emily everything. She explained that the two had been trying for some time to have another baby, but she was not able to get pregnant. Emily started to convince Hermione that it might not be her. She answered that Ron had himself checked out by Luna and there was nothing wrong. His little Weasleys were working fine. The problem was her. She also said that Luna had done a thorough work-up and could not find the reason she could not have a baby.

As she continued to tell Emily about everything, she started to cry. She really did not want to leave Ron. In the end, she felt he would never leave her and never get the life he really wanted, so she decided to end things on her terms.

"This way won't hurt Ron so much." She explained, "He can blame the whole thing on me as well."

"Bullshit." Emily finally said.

Hermione looked at Emily, surprised.

"Hermione, you tend to run away from your problems."

"I never run away from a problem." Hermione answered hotly.

"Hermione," Emily sighed, "When it comes to the problems of your world in general or fighting in injustice of some kind, you do not run away." Emily continued gently, "When dealing with your personal issues, you run away."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but she knew deep down inside that Emily was right. She was running away from her issues rather than facing them. As she thought about it, she became more distressed. She felt tears welling up in her eyes again.

"What have I done?" She asked.

"I don't know," Emily answered gently, "Tell me exactly what you said to Ron."

Hermione quickly explained the confrontation with Ron earlier. Actually looking back, it really was not a confrontation.

"So you just told him you needed some time; you never actually told him you were leaving him." Emily stated.

Hermione just nodded, but she could not find her voice for some reason. Emily just smiled at her.

"Hermione, you have not done anything permanent."

Hermione looked at Emily, lost.

"Ron said it himself. Once you figure things out, he will be there for you."

Hermione did not respond, though she realized that Ron did say that.

"So," Emily said, "We just need to find out what's going on with you."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"I think it's time we have a fertility specialist look at you." Emily answered, "A muggle specialist."

Ron

3 Weeks later

Ron sat and stared at the seven names on his chalkboard. Underneath each of the seven names was all that he knew about the seven witches and wizards listed on the board. Ron was trying to find something each of the seven might have in common, other than the fact that they were all dead. Three of the seven had been Ministry officials, so Ron had requested their personnel files. He hoped that he would find something linking at least those three after he reviewed the files. He was also waiting on background information on the other four victims. Ron had a feeling that somehow these seven people had something in common, but he just had to find out what it was.

The cause of death was the only thing they had in common so far. The way they were killed also bothered Ron a great deal. Initially, the coroner had thought they had been the victims of an aging curse. After examining the bodies, the coroner had determined that each of the victims had their magical core completely drained. The fact that whatever curse was used to drain the victims' magical core led Ron to believe he would easily find their killer. All he had to do is track down the curse and follow up on those that had learned it.

Ron spent the last couple of weeks researching curses. He searched through the Ministry's library, as well as the restricted section at Hogwarts. Ron found no curse that would drain someone's magic. The closest thing he found was something called a life-binding charm, but the charm was used to keep someone alive until they could be properly healed. The charm literally bound the life essence of the caster and the recipient. It did not drain the magical core. Ron sighed. So far he could not catch any kind of break on this case, and he desperately needed one.

The case was not the only thing he needed a break with. He missed Hermione. Ron had not been home the last couple of days; he had slept at the office. He just could not face an empty house. He knew he had done the right thing. Hermione needed to figure things out on her own. Ron was just not sure what she would decide. He loved her with everything he had, and letting her leave almost killed him. He once again was having doubts about Hermione. The burning question being, "What if she decides she is better off without him?" Ron was not sure he could survive losing her. He just had no idea what to do to help her.

Ron did not tell anyone that Hermione had left. The last thing he needed right now was his family putting in their two cents on what he should do. He also knew that they would react angrily about her leaving. Neither he nor Hermione needed that right now. What Hermione needed was the time to think things through. Ron knew she thought she was doing what was best for him, giving him the chance to find someone else. She should know that Ron did not want anyone but her. A family with anyone else would be nothing compared to having a life with Hermione. He just had to have faith that Hermione would make the right decision. In the meantime, he needed something to help him forget she had left.

Ron returned to staring at the chalkboard. He hoped that somehow an answer to everything would magically appear on the board, but things just didn't work out that way. Ron was startled out of his reverie by the voice of his best friend.

"Staring at it is not going to give you any answers."

Ron looked up and saw Harry was standing in his doorway.

"I thought you had training today." Ron stated. His one saving grace over the last few days was Harry had been doing training exercises with his RRT the last few days. Ron knew he would not be able to hide things from Harry for very long.

Harry looked at his friend and said, "Jesus, Ron, you look like shite."

"And I love you to," Ron answered back. "How is my darling sister?" Ron asked, hoping to shift the subject away from himself.

"Tearing up the quidditch pitch as usual," Harry answered as he sat down across from Ron. He looked at the case board. "Any progress?"

"Nah," Ron answered, "The curse was a dead end. I did not find any curses that would drain one's magical core."

Harry nodded. He did not seem surprised at Ron's lack of success. "What does Hermione think?"

Ron looked away from him as he finished the question. Hermione did not think anything. The first victim was found just a couple of days after Hermione had left, so he had not been able to discuss anything with her the way he usually did. Ron did not know how to answer Harry, so he just shrugged.

Harry

Harry knew something was wrong by the way Ron looked away from him when he asked about Hermione. Harry fought back the urge to sigh. Harry had thought that his two best friends had gotten past their bickering stage when they had gotten together. To the best of his knowledge, they had not been fighting. But when Ron looked away, he knew something was up. Looking around Ron's office, he could see several carryout containers in the garbage. Ron's clothes also looked as if he had slept in them.

"Ron, did you stay here all night?" He asked.

Ron just looked away from him.

"What does Hermione say about you not coming home?" Harry asked.

For a minute, Ron did not answer him. Finally he just said softly, "She didn't say anything; she just left."

Harry stared at his best friend, wondering if maybe he had heard Ron incorrectly. He could have sworn he heard him say that Hermione had left him. Harry shook his head in disbelief before he spoke.

"I must have heard that wrong," he stammered.

Ron looked at him coolly and answered. "No, Harry. You heard it right. Hermione left."

Harry sat down. He could not believe what he was hearing. Ron and Hermione had been circling each other for years. No one had any doubt that they would end up together. The thought that they would not make it was not possible. Yet Ron was telling him she had left. Whatever happened, he was sure that Hermione would not leave without provocation. He glared at Ron as he felt a tinge of anger build up.

"What the hell did you do, Ron?" He asked harshly.

Ron did not answer at first. He just stared at Harry. After about a minute's silence, Ron finally answered.

"What makes you think either me or Hermione did anything?"

Harry stared at Ron, not believing what he just heard. Of course Ron had done something, Hermione left.

"Well, I think the fact that she left is a fair indication that something happened." Harry fired back.

Ron just sat there as Harry glared at him. Hermione was like his sister and if Ron had done anything to hurt her…that was a moot point. Obviously Ron had done something or Hermione would not have left.

Ron looked down at his hands and said softly, "Maybe she left because of what was not happening."

Harry looked at Ron, confused. What did he mean by that? Harry felt his anger drain away at seeing how miserable Ron was.

"Ron, what's going on?"

That was all it took for the damn to break. Ron told Harry everything. He told how he and Hermione were trying to have another baby, and so far had not been able to get pregnant. He explained that Hermione blamed herself not only for Fabian, but also for not being able to conceive another child, and that it was eating his wife from within. Ron told Harry how he had done everything he could to keep the pain from eating his wife alive. However, nothing he could do or try would help. Hermione had made up her mind. Finally, he admitted to being relieved slightly when Hermione had left because he could not stand by and watch her slowly fade away. Ron told Harry that even though it was the hardest thing he had ever done, he had to let Hermione go. She needed to figure things out on her own and he couldn't stand in the way of that.

Harry felt bad. He had watched as Ron and Hermione made it look like everything was fine. He never noticed that there was something very wrong with the two of them. Looking back in hindsight, he could see the signs. Hermione had withdrawn from her friends. Harry could not remember the last time Hermione had made it to one of the Weasley Sunday dinners. Ron would cover for her, usually by telling everyone she was involved with a case or a project at work. He would usually joke about it with something like, "You all know how my Hermione is. Once she gets into something,…"

"You can't tell anybody about this, Harry." Ron stated.

"Why not?" He asked. "I would think now would be the time you would want help from your family."

"Harry, this is something the family cannot help us with." Ron answered, "Hermione needs to figure this out on her own." Ron continued, "I know they would understand our situation, and would tell her how important it is that we stick together on this." Ron paused, gathering his thoughts, "Hermione would agree and come back not because she wanted to or had figured things out, but because the family wanted her to come back."

Harry knew Ron was right. In the end, he agreed not to say anything and hoped the two of them would be able to work things out.

Ginny was not sure what it was, but something was bothering Harry. Over the last couple of days, it was like his mind was somewhere else. Ginny had asked him several times what was wrong and he would just answer nothing. When she would push, he would just say it had to do with work and he really could not talk about it. She had tried to get a hold of Hermione to see if she had any idea what was going on, however she did not answer her calls nor did she call back. Ginny knew she had to do something.

Ginny put her arms around Harry as he just sat staring at the TV.

"We haven't seen Ron or Hermione in a while," she stated. The last time she had seen either her brother or her sister-in-law was the day they had been attacked at Diagon Alley.

"You know how Ron is when he gets into a case," Harry answered. He really was not lying either. Ron had thrown himself into the murders of what had turned out to be seven current or former Ministry employees. Harry knew his friend was using the case to forget that his wife was not around.

"All the more reason for us to invite them over for dinner," Ginny smiled as she continued, "I think Hermione has been a bad influence on him."

Harry chuckled as Ginny finished her statement, remembering back to first year when Ron had said the same thing about Hermione. Harry wished he knew what he could do to help the two of them. However, right now he had to worry about Ginny. He could tell that she was starting to suspect something, by the way she was dancing around the subject of Ron and Hermione.

"I think we should invite them to dinner." Ginny stated.

Harry looked at his wife and asked, "Tonight?"

Ginny nodded affirmatively.

"Ron's working tonight."

"But Hermione isn't," Ginny answered back. "We could have her over and then Ron could meet us after he gets off."

"I think she's visiting her parents." Harry answered quickly.

Ginny just looked at him. With that look, Harry knew she suspected something.

"I see," Ginny said, sounding irritated, "So she can make time for her parents, but ignore us Weasleys."

Harry sighed. He knew this was coming when Ginny bought up having Ron and Hermione over.

"Ginny, it's not like that." He answered.

"Really." Harry could see Ginny's ears starting to turn a bit red. This was never a good sign and Harry needed to stop things before Ginny got herself going. In some ways, Ginny was just too much like her mother.

"Ginny, it's not like that at…"

"So you are telling me that Ron and Hermione have not been avoiding the family?" She jabbed him in the chest as she continued, "If you haven't noticed they have not been over the last few Sundays."

Harry knew he was in trouble.

"What's going on, Harry?" She asked.

Harry tried to ignore the question, but Ginny asked again.

"Ginny, I promised…"

Ginny did not let him finish.

"So something is going on then?" She asked.

"I did not say that." He answered hotly.

"Then what did you promise?" She persisted.

"Bugger," Harry thought to himself. Ginny now knew he knew something. She would not let it go until he told her. _"Sorry, Ron," _he thought to himself.

"Ginny I promised Ron I would not tell anyone. You need to promise me you won't say or do anything."

Ginny just shook her head. "Harry Potter, you…"

"Hermione left!" Harry shouted before she could finish.

Ginny stopped mid-sentence as she took in what Harry said.

"What do you mean she left?" She asked softly.

"Ron and Hermione have separated." Harry answered, "She needs to…"

"That bitch!" Ginny said more to herself than Harry. She then grabbed her coat and before Harry could say anything she walked out the front door and disapparated.

"Bugger," he muttered.

Hermione finally was able to get comfortable. It had been a long couple of weeks and if she never saw the inside of another hospital that would be fine with her. It had taken Emily a couple of days to finally convince Hermione to see a muggle specialist. The specialist had run several different tests to see if she could find out why Hermione was not able to get pregnant. As each of the tests came back with nothing, Hermione began to wonder if she was the victim of some kind of curse. Hermione almost wished the result had been a curse.

After many visits, she had reluctantly told the doctor about the miscarriage. Hermione did not want to get into the details as to the events leading up to her miscarriage. After learning of the miscarriage, the doctor performed a Hysteroscopy and found she had scar tissue in her uterus, probably caused by the treatment of her miscarriage. The doctor explained to her that she had Asherman's syndrome and the scar tissue was preventing Hermione from getting pregnant.

Finding out why she could not get pregnant was half the battle for Hermione. The other half was Ron. She knew she had hurt him deeply by leaving the way she had. No matter how badly she needed to figure things out, she should have never left Ron the way she had. Hermione's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Hermione did not think that Emily was expecting anyone. However, she knew this was a secure building, so she was not worried as she got up and answered the door. Hermione was surprised to see Ginny standing at the door.

"Ginny." She tried to hide her surprise as she greeted her sister-in-law. She also knew by just looking at her sister-in-law that she was angry.

The next thing Hermione heard was a loud crack, and felt a sharp pain in the side of her face. Ginny had slapped her.

"You heartless bitch!" Ginny shouted, "How could you?"

Hermione didn't answer Ginny. She just thought to herself, _that settles that. Ron was not going to forgive her for leaving. _

She knew that Ginny was still shouting at her, and she did not try do defend herself as Ginny slapped her two more times. _She deserved this_, she thought._ She deserved this for breaking Ron's heart_.

Emily was awakened from a sound sleep by the sound of someone shouting. I must be imagining things, she thought for a brief moment. However the distinct sounds of someone being hit with an open hand bought her to full wakefulness in an instant. She quickly grabbed the pepper spray she kept in her purse. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew that Hermione was in trouble.

Emily quickly stepped into her living room. She could not believe what she saw. Ginny was shouting at Hermione about how she had broken her brother's heart. Hermione's nose was bleeding and she could see bruises already forming on her face. That explained the sounds she had heard. To her surprise, Ginny started to bring her hand back.

"Ginny, stop!" Emily shouted.

Ginny did not follow through with hitting Hermione. She did however turn and started heading towards her.

"You!"

Emily was surprised as the youngest Weasley started towards her. She and Ginny had always gotten along. Unlike Hermione, Emily was not going to just let Ginny attack her. She quickly bought the pepper spray to bear and spoke to Ginny calmly, "You take one more step Ginny and you will regret it."

Emily was not sure what got Ginny's attention; it could have been her calm voice, or the fact that she was now pointing a full can of CS spray at her. Whatever it was, Ginny stopped dead in her tracks.

"I should hex the both of you," Ginny spat angrily.

"I think it might be best if you just leave well enough alone and get out of my flat."

Emily stared right back at the youngest Weasley.

"If I don't?" Ginny asked icily.

"Do you really want to push me, Ginny?" Emily asked.

Ginny started to reach for her wand.

Emily did not wait to see why she was reaching for her wand. She let loose with the CS spray, and hit Ginny full in the face. Ginny screamed out in pain and quickly disapparated with a pop.

Emily quickly ran to Hermione to see how she was doing.

Harry was getting worried. It had been a little over an hour and a half since Ginny left. He thought at first to call her family to make sure she was okay, but decided against it. That would lead to too many questions such as why was Ginny so angry. Harry knew he had shared the answer to that question with one too many Weasleys already. Harry sighed. He loved his wife with everything he had, but she did have one flaw. She was a Weasley.

Being a Weasley, she had inherited the Weasley temper. That Weasley temper came with a tendency to go off and do things in anger, without caring about the end result. When a Weasley temper was involved, the end results were rarely good. Harry found himself thankful that he had no idea where Hermione was. Harry did not want to contemplate what would happen in a confrontation between Ginny and Hermione. They were both very powerful witches; no matter how that would end up, it would not be pretty.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash from the kitchen followed by the sound of his wife.

"That bitch!"

Harry quickly ran to the kitchen. Ginny was sitting on the floor, her face was red and puffy, and tears were streaming from her eyes. It looked as if she had been hit with her patented bat bogey hex, but there were no bat bogeys to be seen. Ginny continued to swipe at her eyes.

"Ginny, what happened?" Harry asked.

"That bitch is what happened," Ginny shouted back at him.

Harry was a bit lost. He had no idea who Ginny was talking about. Then he remembered what he had told her before she stormed out of the house.

"Hermione?" He asked.

"No," Ginny sat up as she answered angrily, "Your ex-girlfriend."

Harry was lost. The only ex he could think of was Emily, and Harry had no idea how Emily would have been able to hex Ginny since she was a muggle. Harry looked at his wife again and realized what must have happened. He gently took Ginny and started to help her up, guiding her to the sink.

"Come on, Ginny, let's get you to the sink."

Ginny pulled away from him violently.

"I don't need the goddamn sink," she looked at Harry angrily, "Just cast the damn counter curse."

Harry tried not to lose his patience, as he explained, "Ginny, this isn't a curse, it's…"

Harry stopped as Ginny glared at him, but she let him guide her to the sink and he began to start rising her face with cold water. She must have taken a full blast in the face. Harry was amazed that Ginny had not splinched herself, however he knew his wife was used to performing while in pain. That came from being a professional quidditch player.

As he continued to rinse her face, he asked as gently as he could, "Why did Emily…"

Before Ginny could answer, someone started pounding on the front door.

"Potter!"

Harry recognized Ron's voice, and he sounded downright pissed.

"Open this goddamned door!"

Harry quickly checked and Ginny at least seemed to be calming down. One angry Weasley was more than he would be able to handle. Harry quickly opened the front door.

Ron did not wait for him to open the door all the way. As soon as Harry started to open the door, Ron shoved his way in shouting.

"I asked you not to say anything!"

"Ron,…"

"Do you know what your wife just did?" Ron continued into the house. "Where is my dear sister anyway," Ron asked angrily.

"Don't you dare, Ronald Weasley!" Ginny shouted from the kitchen doorway.

Ron took one look at Ginny and he saw red and started moving towards her. Harry quickly stepped between the two of them, his patience finally giving way.

"Stop it, both of you!" He shouted.

Ron stopped in his tracks. Ginny knew enough not to argue with Harry. Harry Potter very rarely raised his voice, and when he did, you had either best stay out of his way, or do what he commanded.

Harry gathered himself. This was not good; there was only one thing that would ever set Ron off the way he was. Harry turned to Ginny and asked. "Ginny, what did you do?"

"Don't you go there, Harry…," Ginny started to answer. Harry cut her off.

"Goddamnit, Ginny, just answer the question!"

Ginny just glared at Harry, so Ron answered for her.

"Emily thinks she may have broken Hermione's nose, but she refused to get it looked at." Ron answered.

"Serves the bitch right," Ginny muttered.

"What was that?" Ron asked starting to see red again.

"You heard me," Ginny fired back, as she too was starting to see red again. "She should have never left you, Ron."

Ron looked at Harry, then Ginny.

"Ginny, that is none of your business."

"None of my business. The bitch left you and that's …"

"Call her a bitch one more time…," Ron interrupted her.

This was getting nowhere. Harry quickly cast a silencing charm on the two Weasleys.

"Ginny," he looked at his wife fighting back his own anger. He knew Ginny felt she was just defending her brother, but she did not know the whole story. "You should have taken the time to find out what was going on before you did anything." He looked at Ron and asked gently, "Is she going to be ok?" He released the silencing spell on Ron.

"Emily thinks so," Ron answered, "But now I can't see Hermione coming back now. She must think I hate her now."

Harry could see Ron was miserable and this was his fault. He had to do something.

"She loves you, Ron."

He heard Ginny huff. She had silently removed the silencing charm, but had the good sense not to say anything.

"Ron, why don't we sit down and have some tea, and you can tell Ginny what's been going on."

Ron started to balk, but Harry interrupted him, "I promise that Ginny will not say anything."

Ron finally agreed, and Ginny felt like a complete shit after he informed her of what had been going on…

"Harry." Hermione stood up and gave Harry a fast hug, and then she sat back down.

"How are you, Hermione?" Harry asked as he sat down. She looked away from him as she answered sadly.

"I've been better." She answered, then asked, "How's Ron?"

Harry smiled to himself. No matter how hard they tried to hide it, it was hard to miss the fact that his two best friends loved each other deeply.

"I think he is about as well as you are."

Hermione just sat silently, not saying anything. Harry waited for a few minutes before finally speaking.

"Ron told me what has been going on with you two. Is there anything I can do?"

Hermione smiled at Harry, but he could still see a deep sadness in her eyes. She was just as miserable as her husband.

"Make sure he takes care of himself, Harry."

Harry gently took her hand. "That's your job."

Hermione shook her head. "I think I've been fired."

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked, even though he already knew the answer. Ginny had done more damage than just a bloody nose the day she went to see his sister-in-law. Harry hoped that he would be able to fix this, if not Ron and Ginny would probably never speak to each other again. Ron told Ginny that she had destroyed any chance he had to make things better with Hermione by what she had done. Listening to Hermione, he knew Ron was right. Hermione seemed to have given up on him.

"Well, Ron would not say anything to his family about our problems, unless…"

Harry stopped her.

"Ron hasn't said anything about your leaving."

"Harry," Hermione patted his hand gently, "Please we both know why Ginny showed up at Emily's. Ron must have..."

"Actually, Hermione, I was the one that told Ginny that the two of you had separated."

Hermione looked at Harry. He could see she was a bit confused, so he continued.

"Ron has not gone home since you left."

"Oh, Ron," she whispered as Harry continued.

"One of his people was concerned and thought I should talk to him." Harry paused. "Ron asked me not to tell anyone what was going on with you two. I slipped one time and let Ginny know, and she overreacted."

Hermione laughed. They both knew what she was thinking. What a surprise for a Weasley to overreact.

"You know it took a lot to keep him from killing her after he found out she hit you." Harry looked at her, "You are the only thing that Ron would choose over his family."

Harry saw tears start to form in Hermione's eyes.

"That's just it, Harry." Hermione answered, "Family is everything to Ron, and I cannot give him the one thing he wants."

"Hermione," Harry again gently took her hands, "If Ron cannot have a family with you, then he will not have one."

"Harry…"

"Hermione, there is only one person Ron would ever consider having children with and that's you. If he cannot have children with you, then he will be fine with that, as long as he has you…"

Hermione could not hold back her tears anymore when she realized Harry was right. She was crying because she knew she had really messed things up and had to fix them.

Laura sat at her desk watching as Ron once again stared at his blackboard. He had been slowly driving himself insane. She knew he had not gone home in several weeks. She knew he was trying to forget about his "ex-wife." Okay, so they had not started anything legally. It had been over a month now, and she knew that Granger was not coming back.

She had been biding her time, waiting for the right time to make her move. Looking at Ron, she knew he was at the end of his rope. _Time to throw him a lifeline_, she thought to herself as she got up and headed into his office. She closed the door gently, and walked around his desk, coming up behind him.

She slowly put her arms around him and gently started to kiss him on the side of the face.

Additional note

So can anybody tell me the name of the song I used in this chapter..


	9. Jericho

Authors Note

This is a very long chapter, and quite a bit happens in it. I warn you now the point of view in this chapter is going to be changing quite a bit. Most of what is happening with our characters is happening at the same time.

This chapter has turned into the largest one I have ever written and at 10,000 I began to worry if had a limit to the size and content of chapters so I have decided to break this chapter into two parts.

I also want to Than Obsessed Ron&Hermione shipper for her help in betaing this massive chapter.

Enjoy.

9

Jericho

Hermione

Ministry of Magic

Atrium

11:45 AM

Hermione kept telling herself that everything would be fine. As she got closer to the lifts, she felt that resolve quickly disappearing. She imagined Ron telling her how she had broken his heart by leaving and telling her how he needed and found comfort with another woman. In Hermione's visions, the one he found that comfort with was his assistant Laura.

Hermione knew that at the time she left, Ron had not noticed how Laura was throwing herself at him. She found herself worrying that once she had left, Ron would have accepted her offer of comfort. That would lead to…Hermione just did not want to even think about that.

As the lift got closer to the auror's offices, she could feel the pounding of her heart. She again told herself, "This is Ron. You have nothing to worry about." No matter how often she told herself, doubt still clawed at her mind.

Hermione quickly stepped out of the lifts and stopped dead in her tracks…

Ron Weasley

Auror Department

Criminal Investigations Division

11:50 AM

Ron did not hear Laura as she came up behind him. He had other things on his mind. Ron had finally gotten the personnel files on his seven victims. He began thinking to himself, "Be careful what you wish for…You just might get it."

"Bloody Hell," he muttered as he stared at seven files spread out over his desk. Ron had been looking for something that would link his seven victims. As he continued to look at the files, he started to shake his head. All seven of his victims had at one point in their ministry careers worked for the Department of Magical Law. Ron just kept staring at the documents in disbelief. He then stood up, walked over to his blackboard, and added two more names to the list - William Devin and Hermione Weasley.

The fact that all of his victims were either current or former employees with the Department of Magical Law was not a coincidence. Hell, Ron didn't believe in coincidences anymore. Ron started going over everything he knew about the nine names on the board. _What did they all have in common?_ He asked himself.

The fact that one of the names on the board was his wife was the reason he was so deep in thought that he had not heard Laura come into the office. Ron did not react immediately when he felt her put her arms around him. But when he felt her kiss the side of his face, he quickly pulled out of her embrace and faced her.

"What are you doing?" He asked harshly.

Ron ignored the hurt look she gave him as she answered.

"You looked like you needed…"

Ron interrupted her. Contrary to what everyone in the office thought, Ron was very much aware that Laura had been throwing herself at him. He thought if he just ignored her and pretended as if he had not noticed her, then she would get the hint.

"Laura, this isn't going to happen." He said, trying to be gentle.

Something flashed in her eyes as he finished. Ron was not sure if it was hurt or anger.

"Why not?" She asked as she started to stroke his shoulder softly.

Ron stepped away from her, so that she could not touch him.

"I'm married."

Laura just laughed.

"She left you."

Ron shook his head.

"We've separated, but she has not…"

"When was the last time you heard from Hermione, Ron?" Laura pushed, "You need to face facts, Ron. The…"

He interrupted her harshly.

"If you are smart, you will not finish that statement."

Laura took a step back and asked, "What does that…" Laura stopped herself from saying bitch. Hoping Ron had not caught her slip, she continued, "woman have that I don't?"

Ron just looked at Laura and answered "My love."

Laura looked at Ron, clearly confused. "I love my wife, Laura," Ron stated, "Nothing is ever going to change that."

The two of them heard a gasp from the doorway. Ron looked up and saw the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Hermione was standing at the door, staring at Ron with tears in her eyes. Ron quickly stepped around his desk and walked up to her. Hermione looked at him.

"You still love me?" She asked.

Ron reached out, gently caressed her face, and said softly, "Always the tone of surprise."

She just smiled back at him. "I've been such…"

"Don't, Hermione." He said quietly as he lifted her chin with his finger and kissed her on the lips gently. They never noticed that Laura had glared at them angrily and then left the room.

The kiss was interrupted by a distant rumbling, and then the office shook.

Ministry of Magic

Atrium

12:00 PM

One of the busiest places in magical England was the Ministry of Magic. Witches and wizards would visit the Ministry for a great number of things. Whether you needed a marriage license, an apparition license or even a business license, you had to visit the department that handled whatever you needed at the Ministry of Magic. If you were a witch or wizard in magical England, at some point in your life you would pay a visit to the Ministry of Magic.

When you first arrive, you go through the atrium to find the lift that will take you where you need to go. Needless to say, the atrium of the ministry is always very crowded. During the mid-morning or afternoon hours usually, there would be several hundred witches and wizards in the lobby. During the peak hours at the beginning or end of the day, you could find up to a couple of thousand witches and wizards in the lobby.

The atrium was a few hundred feet below the streets of London and well hidden. It is said the Ministry was built in leftover tunnels from the second World War that had been long forgotten by muggle London; this was probably helped by the many wards that protected the Ministry from anything from a wayward muggle to people being able to just apparate into the Ministry. The wards protecting the Ministry of Magic (MOM) were some of the most powerful in England.

The buildings right above the ministry were owned by the MOM, and rented out to muggle firms that did business in both the magical and muggle world. Many of those businesses were owned by families of muggleborns, so they were aware of the Ministry but had never visited. The buildings were supported by both magical and physical beams within the walls of the atrium.

As those that had business at the Ministry hurried through the atrium, they did not pay attention to what appeared to be six rubbish bins at various points in the lobby. One was located by the lifts, another sat by the banks of fireplaces where ministry employees arrived for work, and the remaining four were at various points along the lobby walls.

It was in the middle of the midday rush that the first of the rubbish bins exploded. The explosion blew out the walls by the bin. As the witches and wizards that had not been injured in the explosion ran from the area, there was a second and then a third explosion. In total, six massive bombs exploded in the crowded atrium.

The effects of the explosions were devastating. In some areas, the roof came down on the crowd, killing many witches and wizards and trapping many more beneath the rubble. The building immediately above the ministry, having lost the support it needed, also collapsed into the lobby. The main floor of the atrium was not designed to take that kind of weight, and quickly buckled and collapsed onto the floor below.

Soon the atrium of the Ministry of Magic fell deathly silent. The silence was broken by the sounds of the dying and injured.

Luna Lovegood.

St Mungo's Casualty Ward

12:05 PM

"There you go." Luna smiled as she finished setting the broken arm of a seven-year old patient. Her patient thanked her as she jumped down from the examination table. Luna turned to the young girl's mother and started to go over how to care for the broken arm with her. Luna was interrupted by the tones of the callout alarm.

"EMS Response needed - Ministry of Magic."

Luna looked up, surprised. Usually when there was a callout, they were given the nature of the injury. This time they were only given the location of the call. Normally, Luna would just let the team that was on call handle something like this, but she was curious about the lack of details. She motioned for a mediwizard. She asked the mediwizard to finish going over the aftercare instructions with her patient's mother.

She then quickly approached the EMS team that was heading towards the waiting ambulance. The lead mediwitch looked at her and asked,

"Do you have any idea what this is?"

"Sorry. I know as much as you do, Kat." Luna made a decision. "Tell you what; I'll apparate to the scene and let you know."

Kat nodded as Luna disapparated.

The first thing Luna noticed was the lack of any pushback as she apparated. Normally she would feel something like a small push until the anti-apparition wards recognized her as being authorized to apparate to the Ministry. As she appeared at the apparition point, she noticed how quiet it was. Typically, the ministry was very noisy with the sounds of people hurrying back and forth to take care of whatever business they had. As Luna turned to head to the atrium, the sounds of people moaning in pain reached her. Luna became aware that something was terribly wrong. Luna quickly stepped out of the emergency apparition point and stopped dead in her tracks.

The atrium looked like a war zone. Through the haze of dust and smoke, she could see the signs of some kind of explosion. Large portions of the ceiling had fallen down to the floor, and part of the floor appeared to have collapsed to the level below that. Among all of the debris, she could see the injured. Luna just stared at the carnage before her, shocked for just a heartbeat. As she reached for her radio, she noticed her hand was shaking. She then keyed her mike and said the codeword that she had hoped she would never use.

"Jericho."

The radio was silent for a second, then a voice queried.

"Unit calling, please repeat your last word?"

"Medic one, Jericho, Jericho, Jericho." She answered, and then she headed into the carnage that was once the atrium for the Ministry of Magic and began triaging the patients.

Harry Potter.

Rapid Response Team

Training Facility

Little Whining

Surrey

12:08 PM

Harry could not help but be pleased as his team began to gather around him. Today's exercise had been a re-creation of the hostage situation that had lead to Hermione's miscarriage. This time the team was able to end the siege successfully without injury to the hostage or the hostage taker. Harry did not question why he chose this particular scenario. After hearing how Hermione was having difficulties having another baby, Harry had found himself thinking more and more about that day. Harry made a promise to himself that no one would face that kind of injury again.

Harry looked at each member of the team before speaking.

"Good job." Harry then began the debriefing by asking, "So what could we have done differently?"

Even though the outcome of the drill had been positive, the team began a critique of the drill. The idea behind the debriefing was that hindsight was 20/20. By doing a critique of the team's action, they might find something they had missed during the heat of battle. Harry wished he could take credit for the drills and the debriefing afterwards, but the idea belonged to his best friend, Ron.

Ron had decided the RRT needed to practice a different scenario at least once a week. Ron had explained to Harry that if the team practiced different scenarios, then they would have some idea of how to handle a real situation when it came up. After Harry and Kingsley agreed with him, Ron had spent several months designing a variety of scenarios for the team. Harry never knew Ron had designed a drill based on what had happened to Hermione until after he met with her at Emily's. He was trying to decide what drill to run when he noticed a drill without a regular name, but just a date. Harry recognized the date, and and after reviewing the drill, he decided that was what the team would work on this week.

Harry wished Ron was with him, however Ron had just received some files on his seven murder victims and wanted to review them right away. Harry smiled to himself as he thought that Ron would be pleased with how today's drill went.

Harry was interrupted by the sound of the teams' emergency pagers going off. Harry did his best to hide his shock as the pagers said one word three times.

"Jericho, Jericho, Jericho."

Harry quickly keyed up his radio and spoke into his mic.

"RRT 1 to Central, can you confirm Jericho?"

The person on the radio sounded harried as he answered.

Harry was hoping he had heard wrong. Ron had been in New York on September 11, 2001 and had been greatly affected by what he had seen there. Ron had seen first hand how the New York City's Emergency Services had quickly been overwhelmed that day, even though New York City had emergency plans in place. The magical world had no such plans. After September 11th, Ron became convinced that many of those lost in the Battle of Hogwarts need not have died if the magical community in England had some form of plan in place.

In the months after he had returned from New York, Ron met with Luna, as well as London's muggle First Responders to come up with plans if the unthinkable happened. Each plan was centered around an area that could lead to massive magical injuries. Each plan had a codeword assigned to it. Diagon Alley's code was "Mallrat," Hogwarts was "Ridgemont," anything that involving quidditch was "Seeker-" and the location. The Ministry of Magic was "Jericho."

Harry didn't need to be at the Ministry to know whatever happened was bad. The codeword Jericho told him everything he needed to know. Whatever had happened at the Ministry was massive. Harry found himself hoping that Ron was just running one of the drills he had been threatening ever since he completed his plans. If this was a drill, the radio would answer with a code letting senior Ministry officials know it was a drill.

"RRT1, Jericho confirmed by Medic 1."

It was not a drill.

Harry turned to his team and started barking orders.

"Okay, get all the rescue gear you can carry. I want to apparate in three minutes!"

Then Harry immediately started to take an inventory of people he knew. Kingsley was at a meeting with the Prime Minister, Ginny was visiting her mom, Ron was… Harry felt his heart stop as he realized that Ron was at the Ministry. Harry looked at his watch and felt his blood run cold. It was around lunchtime, so if Hermione had gone through with her plans, she was with Ron. Harry quickly changed the channel on his radio.

"Inspector 101."

No response.

"Inspector 101." He repeated. Again, he got no response.

Harry found himself thinking as he arrived to the staging area, _"Damnit, Ron, where are you?"_

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft

Headmistresses' Office

12:08PM

Minerva tried to keep from laughing as she glared at the two young men sitting across from her. She had to admit that the two would have done George and Fred Weasley proud. However, no matter how amusing she found what they had done, discipline had to be maintained. Gathering herself, she gave the two students her sternest glare and spoke.

"Explain yourselves."

Just as the two started to talk, they were silenced by a loud dinging, followed by the school's public address system.

"Jericho, Jericho, Jericho."

Minerva felt the color drain from her face. She then quickly escorted the students out of her office.

"Return to your houses at once."

As she stepped into the hallway, she could see the staff had things well in hand, having all the students return to their common rooms.

Minerva quickly made her way to the hospital wing. As she entered, she saw Madame Pomphrey standing by the radio. She heard one of Harry Potter's DA members speaking through the radio. Luna Lovegood had been a real surprise to Minerva. She expected her to go off in search of the fantastical creatures she had always talked about. Instead, she had become one of St. Mungo's most respected healers. Minerva wondered if the events of her seventh year had led Luna to become the first healer specializing in Trauma.

"Casualties are quite heavy," she heard Luna saying. She then said, "St. Mungo's?"

"40." The hospital answered back. Forty was the number of patients the hospital could handle.

"London."

"100."

"Hogwarts."

Minerva gasped. She knew what Luna was doing. If Minerva remembered correctly from her briefing, Luna would continue to go through the list of hospitals until she had enough beds to cover the injured she had on scene. That meant that there were already over a hundred and forty injured.

Poppy looked at Minerva before she answered.

"15."

She could hear Luna pause, then she answered.

"I am implementing EMS plan 1."

"Luna," a voice that Minerva did not recognize came over the conference call. "How many can we expect?"

Minerva wished she had noticed the sounds of people in the background as they waited for Luna to answer. She could hear Luna talking to someone in the background.

"Massive," she answered. "London, send me everyone you can. Also, alert all the hospitals around the ministry to be expecting injured. We will send critical patients that can be treated through non-magical means to non-magical hospitals. Those patients that are in need of critical magical treatment will be portkeyed to St. Mungo's, and all others will be sent to Hogwarts." Luna paused, "Madame Pomphrey, I hate to do this to you, but I have no choice."

"That's okay, Luna," The school matron answered, "We'll get some help from the DA."

Minerva had the DA continue at Hogwarts as a tribute to those that had been killed in the battle. Students looking for careers in Magical Law Enforcement and Healing were encouraged to join to further their education in these areas. Luna finished the conference call. Minerva turned away from the table and saw that the rest of the staff had come to the hospital wing. From what she had just heard, Minerva knew they were going to need all the help they could get.

Kinglsey Shacklebolt.

10 Downing Street

12:08 PM

Kingsley fought the urge to yawn as the aide continued his briefing. Ever since the Trio had bought down Deloris Umbridge, he and the non-magical Prime Minister would meet at least once a month. During the meetings, Kingsley would brief the Prime Minister on what was going on in the magical world. In turn, the Prime Minister would let Kingsley know about the important events in the non-magical world.

Kingsley normally enjoyed these meetings. He felt that bringing the non-magical and magical world together was extremely important. However today's meeting was just plain boring. The aide was briefing them on how the magical world could benefit from the use of computers.

Kingsley had to admit that he really just was not into technology in the way the younger generation was. Cell phones were the extent of his interest in technology. He also admitted that the public safety departments of the Ministry benefited a great deal from the use of radios. He, however, just did not see the benefit in the Ministry starting to use computers. He would have to sit down with Hermione Weasley and hope she could explain all this to him.

As Kingsley continued to fight another yawn, another aide stepped into the office. He waited until the Prime Minister motioned for him to speak. The aide then whispered something and left.

Blake then looked at Kingsley for a second before speaking softly.

"Kingsley, we are going to need to break away from this meeting."

Kingsley could see his friend was concerned about something, but did not ask.

"I understand. I will…"

"Kingsley, we are going to need you to stay here." As Blake finished, the door to the office opened and two of Kingsley's bodyguards stepped into the office brandishing their wands. Kingsley looked at Blake; before he could ask, Blake spoke.

"Jericho was implemented five minutes ago."

Kingsley sat down hard as Blake finished the statement.

"How bad?" He asked.

"We don't have any details yet, but EMS plan 1 has been implemented by your people.

"That bad?" He asked. An EMS plan 1 was designed for massive casualties. He knew that Plan 1 was designed by Inspector Weasley along with Healer Lovegood when Weasley returned from the states after September 11, 2001. Kingsley had approved of going ahead with the Jericho as well as EMS plan 1, but felt they would never need it. EMS Plan 1 would send those that could be treated by non-magical means to non-magical hospitals, so only magical injuries would go to St. Mungo's.

"Who implemented Plan 1?" He asked.

"Medic one."

Kingsley sighed. He had hoped maybe some junior mediwizard had panicked and implemented Plan 1. The fact that Luna declared Plan 1 left no doubt that a large amount of casualties were at the Ministry. This was going to be a long day.

Hermione Weasley

Criminal Investigations Division

Auror Dept

12:15 PM

"Bloody Hell," Hermione heard Ron swear as he rolled off of her. She then felt him checking her for injuries. "Hermione, are you hurt?"

Hermione shook her head. Then realizing the lights were out, she answered, "No." She sat up and looked around. It appeared that the roof had caved into the Auror Department. She could hear the sounds of people coughing and some moaning coming from the outer office. She heard Ron get up and head towards the outer office.

"Is anyone injured?" She heard him ask.

Hermione stood up and took a minute to get her bearings, then she asked the question she knew everyone had wanted to ask.

"What happened?"

Ron looked around, taking in the damage to the Auror's office then answered.

"I don't know…" He then addressed the twenty or so aurors. "Does anyone have a radio?"

He was handed a radio.

Ron turned it on, and switched to the emergency band. The radio remained silent. Just to be sure, Ron spoke into the radio.

"Inspector 101."

The radio squeaked and he could hear some voices, but he could not make out what they were saying.

"Radios are out," he stated,.

"The repeaters must be down." Hermione said as she pulled out her cell phone. She looked at the phone and could see that she was not getting a signal. "Phones are out too."

Hermione once again looked around the office. The desks were strewn about; many had been broken and pieces from the roof were all over the desks and floor. _So, the roof collapsed_, she thought to herself. She looked up to see if she could see beyond the debris from the roof to the floor above them, but she couldn't. She then looked around again. They had gotten lucky.

Many of the aurors appeared to have cuts and bruises, and a few had broken bones. From what she could see, none had life-threatening injuries. _We have to get out of here_, she thought, _we have no idea why the roof collapsed and the rest of it could come down on them_. She gently pulled Ron away from the Aurors and whispered.

"We need to get up to the atrium."

Ron nodded in agreement. Then spoke up.

"Everyone, we need to get to the lifts."

It took a few minutes to get everyone organized, and it only took a few minutes to get to the lifts. As they approached the lifts, it was clear that they were not going to get up to the atrium that way. What appeared to be heavy smoke was coming from the lift shafts, so anyone on the lifts would probably be killed by the heavy smoke before they reached where they were going. Ron led the group to the emergency stairwells. Hermione whispered to Ron as they walked, "Ron, what the hell happened?"

Ron just shook his head as they approached the stairwell door.

Ginny Potter

The Burrow

12:15 PM

It had been a long time since Ginny had spent any time with her mother. It was not as if she had never visited. She and Harry came to every one of Molly's Sunday dinners. What she had been missing was mother-daughter time where she and Molly just spent time with each other.

As a young girl, Ginny cherished the time she would spend with her mother. During those times, the two would talk about anything. Ginny smiled as she remembered how she would have Molly read her stories about The Boy Who Lived. After the stories, Ginny would tell her mother how worried she was about the young boy, who no longer had his parents. She would tell her mother how she would make Harry Potter happy by giving him the family he never had.

Ginny just smiled to herself as she realized that despite all the odds against it, her dream had come true. She did in fact meet Harry Potter and marry him. _Funny how things work out_, Ginny thought to herself.

"A galleon for your thoughts." Her mother said.

Ginny just looked at her mother, smiling.

"I was just remembering how I would make you read to me the stories about The Boy Who Lived, and then tell you that I would make him happy by marrying him."

Molly chuckled,

"Harry never had a chance."

Ginny laughed as well. Once she got over her shyness, she and Harry became good friends. It was their friendship that made their relationship as strong as it was. Had they not have been close friends, she could have easily lost Harry to Emily. If that happened, it would have been her own fault, not Harry's or Emily's. She was the one that had pushed Harry away from her.

Ginny's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the TV. She looked up. She could not believe how much things had changed in the magical community since the war. Lee Jordan had started the WBS, The Wizarding Broadcasting System, after TVs became popular in the magical community. Granted, electronics were fairly expensive in the magical world because of the shielding the devices needed to protect themselves from the magical energy generated in magical homes. George had spent a lot of time with Harry explaining how the non-magical military shielded their electronics against something called EMP. He had explained that for magical devices, magical energy was the same thing as EMP and if devices were shielded against EMP, then they would work in magical homes.

After hearing George's idea, Harry, Ron, and Hermione as well as the rest of the Weasley family agreed to invest in the new technology for the magical world. Ginny knew that those investments had paid off for the family in a big way, and each of the Weasleys were now financially secure, if not well off. Ginny just could not bring herself to state the Weasleys were now a wealthy family. No matter what was reported in The Daily Prophet.

Ginny looked up at the TV, and saw the words "Breaking News." Then the picture changed to the familiar face of Lee Jordan.

"Witches and Wizards," It looked to Ginny like Lee was a little bit harried. She continued to listen.

"We interrupt your programming for a breaking story."

The image behind Lee changed to what Ginny thought was clearly a feed from one of the non-magical TV stations. She was shocked at the scene. It appeared that a large building had collapsed into what could only be described as a crater. She could see smoke pouring out of the crater. The area seemed to be surrounded by non-magical emergency vehicles. Even though the picture appeared to be an aerial view, something about the street looked familiar. It only took a second or two until she realized what street she was looking at.

"Sweet Merlin," she whispered as she sat down hard.

"Ginny, dear, what is it?" Molly asked. Before Ginny could answer, Lee's voice came from the TV.

"It appears that there has been some kind of incident at the Ministry of Magic. We do not have any details as to what has happened. What we do know is that St Mungo's received a call for urgent medical aide at about 12:05 PM. At 12:15 PM, Healer Luna Lovegood of the St Mungo's casualty ward enacted EMS plan 1. By declaring an EMS Plan 1, Healer Lovegood has requested immediate assistance from all the surrounding non-magical hospitals. We will continue to cover this afternoon's events and give details of what has happened as they come in."

Ginny felt her heart drop in her chest, _Harry_, she thought to herself. She then relaxed; Harry was running drills today so he would not have been at the Ministry. Her father was going to be out with Kingsley for the monthly briefing with the Magical Prime Minister. She also knew Percy was probably with her father. Ron was… Her heart stopped again. Ron. She quickly dialed Ron's cell number. As the phone rang, she found herself whispering to herself.

"Come on, Ron, pick up."

No answer.

Without thinking, she dialed Hermione's line. Again, no answer. Ginny remembered Harry saying that Hermione was going to go see Ron. Maybe they are not answering because they are trying to work through their issues. Ginny tried to fight back her fear and worry as she tried calling her brother again… _Ron, you better pick up_, she thought to herself…

William Granger

Granger Dental/Oral Surgery

12:15 PM

William Granger frowned as he looked at the x- rays. _Damn, they're impacted,_ he thought to himself. They would have to put the patient under. William did not think anyone had given the patient a ride, so they might have to put his surgery off to a day when he had someone to take him home. William did not want to have to do that, since the patient was already in a lot of pain.

William sighed as he took the x-rays down and headed out to talk with the patient. When he got to the lobby, he noticed all the patients seemed to be standing around the TV. As he walked towards the group of patients, he looked at the receptionist who just shook her head. She seemed to have no idea what was happening on the TV.

William approached the group around the TV and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the screen, and heard the announcer.

"There are reports of massive casualties. Again, there has been an explosion at the Oval Tube Station in central London. The old deep level shelter had been converted to offices for the British Armed Forces. Details of the cause of today's…"

As William was staring at the screen, he turned to the receptionist, "You'd better get Annette."

He then quickly dialed Hermione's number on his mobile, hoping he was wrong and he was not looking at the Ministry of Magic. After several rings, the call went to voicemail, . He then called Ron's mobile, but again got no answer. After trying to reach Harry Potter and Arthur Weasley, he called Ginny Weasley's number. He was relieved when the young witch answered.

"Ginny, this is William."

He heard Ginny say to someone in the background, "No, it's Mr. Granger."

He heard rustling on the other end of the line, then Molly's voice.

"Do you have any news?" She sounded frantic.

William closed his eyes… There was no doubt now, as he looked at the TV. That crater in the street was the Ministry of Magic and no one knew where his daughter and son-in-law were. William sighed.

"I have not been able to reach anyone."

He heard more jostling, and then Ginny's voice.

"Harry and Luna are at the Ministry helping with the rescue efforts. Actually, I think Luna is in charge…"

"I don't care about Harry and Luna." William snapped.

"We don't know anything." Ginny answered coolly. William immediately regretted snapping at Ginny.

"Look, Ginny, I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"

"I have to go; some people have just arrived." The line went dead before William could finish apologizing. William swore to himself.

"Will," Annette had arrived to the front room, "What's going…Oh my god, Hermione."

William knew that his wife had just seen the TV. He went to her and whispered. "She's going to be okay." He then addressed the patients in the waiting room.

"Given what is going on, we are going to have to reschedule all of your appointments."

Emily Watts

Pinewood Studios

12:20 PM

"Cut!" The director glared at Emily angrily as her mobile continued to ring, interrupting the walk-through. Her two co-stars could not help but snicker. Normally Emily would not have had her mobile with her, but she wanted to hear what happened with Ron and Hermione. She just glared back at the director; it's not like they were filming today. They were just doing a walk-through of one of the final scenes in the movie series.

Emily answered the phone. Before she could say anything, Ginny spoke frantically.

"Emily, please don't hang up." Emily had no intention of hanging up in the youngest Weasley, but she didn't need to let her know that. She didn't say anything and waited for Ginny to continue.

"Is Hermione with you?" She asked. Emily was not sure if she should answer her. The last time Ginny had seen Hermione, Hermione had been bloodied and bruised by Ginny. Ginny must have sensed her hesitation.

"Emily, it's important that I find Hermione." Emily felt her heart clench at the sound of urgency in Ginny's voice. She came to the only logical conclusion and asked louder than she intended.

"What's going on? Has something happened to Ron?" The set went deathly quiet as she finished her question. Many on the set had met Ron and Hermione. They knew Ron was an inspector for Scotland Yard. David and Robert started walking towards her. She held up her hand as she listened to Ginny.

"We don't know. We really need to find Hermione."

Emily hesitated for a second. She thought to herself, _would I know if something had happened to Hermione? _She then focused on the call and answered Ginny.

"Hermione went to have lunch with Ron about forty-five minutes…"

She then heard several people shouting in the background. She could make out someone speaking.

"Dad's with Kingsley and is okay, Harry is in the middle of everything, I haven't heard anything about Ron,"

Hearing this, Emily knew something was wrong. Ginny came back on the line.

"Emily, I have to go. Things are…"

"Ginny, what's going on?" Emily was starting to get worried. She did not have a lot of friends outside the business, and she considered Ron and Hermione to be among some of her closest friends.

"Look, Emily, I don't really have the time to explain." Emily could tell by the noise in the background that Ginny was not being mean. It sounded like all hell was breaking loose at the Burrow.

Harry Potter

Ministry of Magic

Atrium

12:30 PM

"Secure on your end?" Harry asked.

The man nodded.

Harry then cast a spell to inflate the bags.

They were trying to free a young witch from beneath a concrete slab. As the bags inflated, the witch let out a low moan. Luna motioned for Harry to stop inflating the bags. Luna quickly checked her vitals. She then began to examine the witch. Luna shook her head as she examined the patient below the waist. She then swore softly, and looked at Harry.

"Stop."

Harry stopped inflating the airbags. They had not raised the slab much. Harry looked at Luna, but before he could ask, she spoke.

"I need a 2 liter Bolus, right now."

Someone handed her an IV bag. Luna quickly set up the IV and began to squeeze the bag, . She then looked at Harry.

"We need to get her into a PASG before we extract her."

Harry just nodded as Luna spoke into her radio. Within a minute, a paramedic came up with a case. Luna again checked the witch's vital signs. As the paramedic started to open the case, Luna said, "Go on. Harry can help me with this.

Harry looked at what appeared to be plastic trousers with a section for the belly. Along the legs, there appeared to be Velcro strips. Luna started to instruct Harry on how to get the suit set up. It only took about a minute to get the suit opened up and laid out by the patient. Luna instructed Harry to levitate the slab, she needed to have a clear shot to slide the trousers under the patient. Harry slowly levitated the slab. Once the slab was high enough, Luna worked quickly. She slid the suit under the patient, then she sealed the legs, and then the stomach by the Velcro strips. Once she finished, she attached three hoses to the suit, one on each leg and the third on the torso. Once she finished attaching the suit, she began using a hand pump to inflate the right leg. Once the right leg was inflated, she checked the patient's vital signs. Shaking her head, she started to fill the left leg and then the abdomen.

"She's barely stable." Luna said. She then changed channels on her radio and said,

"St. Mungo's, one extremely critical inbound."

Harry watched as Luna then snapped an emergency portkey to the patient and activated it.

Harry looked at his watch. _Damn_, he thought, _that only took five minutes_. It was going to be a very long day…

Ron Weasley.

Auror Department Stairwell

Ministry of Magic

12:35 PM

Ron finally gave up on trying to get the stairwell by pushing the concrete slab blocking the stairway door, and hit it with a blasting hex. The slab quickly shattered into nothing but a dust cloud.

"Tell me again why we have to walk up the stairs like common muggles? Seriously, why can't we just apparate to the atrium."

Ron opened his mouth to answer, but his wife beat him to it.

"Because we have no idea what condition the atrium is in, you daft bimbo," Ron smiled to himself. Hermione's claws were coming out. Merlin, help them. Laura just did not get it, and answered back to Hermione hotly.

"So what does that have to do with anything?"

Hermione just ignored her and asked Ron.

"She really can't be that stupid, can she?"

Ron could see Laura starting to turn red. They really did not have time for this, so Ron answered calmly.

"Laura, what if there was a concrete slab in the area you were apparating to?" Laura just gave Ron a blank look, . Ron thought, _Maybe Hermione was asking the right question after all_. Ron sighed and continued explaining patiently, "You'd splinch yourself."

Laura just glared at Ron. Ron ignored her and addressed the twenty or so people.

"Okay, stay together." He then cast a Lumos spell and stepped into the stairwell.

It looked like the stairwell had not been used in ages. The stairs appeared to be crumbling in some areas. Ron could also see bits of debris along the stairs. Ron was about to start climbing the stairwell when he heard a voice from what sounded like a few floors below.

"Is there somebody up there?"

Ron looked at Hermione, but before he could say anything, the voice called up.

"I can see your light, so I know somebody is up there. Please help us." The voice pleaded.

Ron whispered to Hermione, "I'm going to check this out. You take the…"

"Ron, we need to stick together," Hermione answered. "We have no idea what condition these stairs are in. By the look of things, I think some of the upper floors may have collapsed."

Ron thought about it, and he knew Hermione was right.

"Okay, let me take a look before you bring anyone else down. We have no idea what condition those stairs are in."

Hermione nodded.

Ron turned and started down the stairs. Except for some chunks of debris strewn about, the stairs seemed to be in good condition. Ron stopped dead. The stairs going down the last three floors had completely collapsed. He could barely make out a doorway about halfway down below him. He could see part of a landing and a figure standing on it. Ron cast a charm that cast a spotlight beam instead of the standard Lumos spell and pointed it at the figure below.

"How many do you have down there?" He asked.

"About twenty-five." The man answered.

"Any injured?" Ron answered back. The man took a few minutes to talk to someone that Ron could not see, and then answered.

"Six. They are pretty bad off too." The man answered.

As the man finished, Ron heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Hermione and a couple of others approaching. He motioned for Hermione to stop. He saw her eyes widened suddenly. _Guess I don't need to explain about the stairs_, he thought.

"We have twenty-five trapped down below. Six are injured."

Ron turned his attention to the chasm that was once a staircase. He could not see any way to get the people below up to where they were at. There was nothing that could be used to help them climb up to where he was.

Ron shook his head. He felt Hermione touch his shoulder. He looked at her, she did not need to say anything, he knew by her look she wanted to know what he was thinking.

"We are going to have to leave them, and send them back help."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest.

"We have no way of getting them up here." He explained.

Hermione just laughed then asked.

"Are you a wizard or not?"

Ron laughed as well. He remembered asking her the same question many years ago.

"I am a wizard, but I am nowhere near as powerful as you are."

Hermione just shook her head. This had been a running argument for them for the last couple of years. Hermione believed that he was just as powerful as she was. Ron did not agree with her. Hermione was the most amazing person he had ever met, and there was no way he could be compared to her. This was an argument between the two of them that he knew they would never agree on. Hermione must have reached the same decision. She just gave him the look and continued.

"Ron, we can transfigure some ropes and wood to make a breaches buoy and..."

"A what?" Ron asked.

"A chair we can use to get everyone up here," Hermione answered patiently.

Ron nodded as Hermione drew her wand.

Harry Potter

Triage Area

Ministry of Magic

Atrium.

12:45 PM

Luna hurried into the triage area with Harry on her heels, wand drawn. Neither knew what was going on, only that they just received a frantic radio call asking them to report to the triage area. Harry could see several hundred injured waiting for treatment. Harry knew by the yellow and green tags that these were the non-life threatening injuries. Those with critical injuries were being sorted into two types; those needing immediate life-saving treatment were being stabilized and sent to St Mungo's and The Royal London Hospital via emergency port key. It was obvious why patients would be sent to St. Mungo's. There were questions asked about port keying patients to a muggle casualty ward. Those questions were quickly dispelled when Luna explained to the auror that was questioning this that all the Trauma Mediwizards did some of their training at the The Royal London Hospital.

Those patients that were critical but did not need immediate intervention to survive were being transported to St Mungo's, The Royal London, King's College, St. George's and St Mary's via medivac helicopters. Harry had to admit that the EMS Plan 1 had worked brilliantly. Harry had complimented Luna for Jericho and she had quickly pointed out to him that the plan was Ron's. She said that all she did was give him advice on the medical end of things, but both Jericho and the Medical Plan 1 were all Ron's doing. Ron had once again not received credit for something he had done. Harry knew that for some reason this did not bother Ron, but it bothered him. He was going to do something about it, especially after today.

Harry caught up with Luna who was listening as a mediwizard spoke frantically. As the mediwizard finished what he was saying, an injured wizard just appeared on the triage floor. Harry jumped back.

Luna just looked at the patient and said, "Oh." She then quickly knelt down by the patient who had a red cloth wrapped around his arm. After assessing the patient quickly, she pinned an emergency portkey on his chest and said "Portus-Royal London. The injured man disappeared. Luna then faced the mediwizard. "Tell me again about the first patient."

The mediwizard explained that the first patient to appear did not have life-threatening injuries, and had a yellow cloth instead of a red one around his arm. The patient had been assessed quickly and was awaiting transport in the triage area. Luna took in all that the mediwizard told her. She then looked at Harry.

"Someone is sending us patients."

Harry fought back the urge to say something sarcastic, but he did ask.

"Who, and where from?"

Luna just looked at Harry for a minute.

"If I were to guess, I would say Ronald since they know to send the patients to the triage area. They are probably from the floors below us."

Harry sighed. He had not even thought about who might be trapped in the floors below…The day was getting longer.

Hermione Granger

Department of Magical Games and Sport

Ministry of Magic

1:00 PM

Hermione finished assessing the injured man, then she wrapped his arm in a yellow cloth. She then tapped a ministry pin stating "Portus-triage" The man disappeared as soon as she attached the pin to his clothes.

Once the patient disappeared, she turned and addressed the two others with her.

"How we doing, guys?"

"I think we have cleared this area out." A man named Henry, or was it Horatio had spoken; she wasn't sure of the names anymore. She got up and headed towards the next area that she had been asked to search.

After finishing the rescue of those trapped in the court rooms below, Ron had looked at the door on the landing they were on. She knew what he was thinking. There must be more people trapped in their offices. Ron then turned to face those that were with them.

"Okay, people," Ron sounded tired as he spoke. "I am willing to bet that more people are trapped just like you lot were. The question is do we leave them or do we do our best to help them out."

Hermione heard Laura huff. She hoped that Ron would ignore her, but he didn't.

"You have something to say, Laura?"

_Do the smart thing_, Hermione thought, _and don't say anything_. Hermione realized she was asking too much as Laura answered Ron.

"Why is it up to us to help everyone? I say we…"

"Go then," Ron interrupted her harshly. As he turned to face the others, he said to her, "Just don't expect any of us to run to your aide if you get yourself in trouble."

Laura glared at Ron, and answered.

"You would have to…"

"Why would it be up to me or anyone else to help you when you abandoned others in need?" Ron asked sharply, "I don't have time to debate this with you, Laura. There are people trapped and injured that need my help. Stay or don't. I don't care."

Laura did not say anything else. She just glared at Ron as he started to give out instructions. He then looked at Hermione. "Do you have anything to add?"

"Yes, for those that are not conscious…" Hermione quickly went over basic triage with the group. She kept it simple. Those that were bleeding out or not breathing would be red-tagged for immediate treatment, while those that were unconscious but able to breath and not bleeding would be yellow-tagged. She then showed everyone how to create an emergency portkey to the triage area in the atrium. She hoped that the rescue crews were following Ron's plan, if not… well she did not want to think about that. After her quick briefing, they split up to and went to the areas that Ron had assigned them. It looked like they had enough people to search most of the floors in the Ministry.

Hermione came up to a closed door. She knocked on the door, and shouted, "Is there anyone in there?"

No answer. She opened the door and looked into the room beyond. The room seemed to be in decent shape, but she saw it was empty. She closed the door then marked the door with lipstick 13:25. 0 HJW. 13:25 was the time the door was checked, 0 meant no one was found, and HJW was her initials. Marking the rooms they searched would prevent others from wasting their time searching a room that had already been cleared. She moved to the next door and repeated what she had done on the first door.

This time however someone answered her.

"Yes."

She opened the door and saw five people in the room. One was unconscious. She addressed those in the room.

"Those that can, please walk out into the hallway."

Three of the five stepped out of the room. Hermione then went to a witch that was sitting, and she kneeled next to her.

"Hi, I'm Hermione, and you are?"

"Ann."

"Okay, Ann, what hurts?"

"Everything," Ann answered, "I think my leg is broken.

"Let's take a look," Hermione stated as she examined the leg, then she asked.

"Can you tell me what day it is?"

"Monday."

"Where are you?"

"The Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Cooperation."

"Who is the Minister of Magic?"

"Cornelius Fudge." She answered.

As Hermione assessed Ann's mental state, she found that she had a compound fracture. She did her best to set the bone. She then wrapped Ann's arm with a yellow cloth and sent her off to the triage area via portkey.

She then began to examine the unconscious man. He was barely breathing and she could feel blood at the back of his head. He had a very weak pulse. She wrapped his arm with a red piece of cloth and sent him off to the triage area as well.

Kingsley Shacklebolt

10 Downing Street

Conference Call

1:35 PM

"So far, we have 180 fatalities."

Kingsley grimaced, as Luna continued.

"Another 60 are extremely critical and touch and go, 70 critical, and another five to six hundred with non life-threatening injuries that require treatment."

Another voice that Kingsley did not recognize spoke.

"We need to start diverting patients to additional hospitals. All four of London's trauma centers are overwhelmed."

Luna continued,

"Dr. Gannon, we are diverting as many of the non life-threatening injuries to Hogwarts. We will have to start sending patients to local hospitals as well." Luna paused. "We have massive casualties here."

"How bad is it?" The Prime Minister asked.

"The casualties I just gave you are only from part of the atrium. We are still completing rescue operations here." Luna sounded tired, "We have not started searching the lower floors."

"I'm confused," Arthur Weasley stated, "I thought we were getting patients from the lower floors."

"We are," Luna answered. "Someone starting sending patients from the lower floors via emergency portkey about forty minutes ago. So far, we have received fifteen critical patients and another twelve whose injuries were not life-threatening, but were unable to walk."

"Do we know who is sending these patients?" Kingsley asked.

"No, Minister," Harry answered this time. "We are not able to reach anyone on the lower floors either by radio or cell phone."

Kingsley was surprised to hear this. He knew the Ministry had invested in both repeaters for the radios and cell boosters for the phones in the Ministry. Harry must have anticipated his next question because he continued.

"We believe that when the floors collapsed to the offices, a majority of our repeaters and cell phone boosters were knocked out."

Arthur jumped in before Kingsley said anything else.

"The Americans experienced the same issue at the World Trade Center on 09/11. Non-magical radios are normally line of sight, so they need the repeaters to talk between floors in most cases."

Kingsley nodded and, then asked, "Do we have really have no idea who is sending the injured?"

"We think either Inspector Weasley or Hermione Weasley," Luna answered.

"Why is that?" Arthur asked hopefully. Kingsley knew Arthur had been worried about his son and daughter-in-law since everything had started. He had been able to get a hold of all of his children except his youngest son and his wife. It was believed that they were in Ron's office when the explosions happened in the atrium.

"Well," Luna answered, "The patients are being portkeyed right into the triage area. Ron was the one that had planned Jericho. No one else would know where we would have set the triage up except him and Hermione."

Arthur did not need to ask why Hermione would know the plans. More than likely, Ron had asked her to review his proposals before he submitted them to the Ministry. That meant that either Ron or Hermione were alive and unhurt. He would give Molly a quick call once the conference call was over. He knew that any Weasleys not helping the efforts at the Ministry were all at the Burrow anxiously waiting for news. Now, he would be able to give them some good news for the first time since everything had started.

Emily Watts

Kensington Street Staging Area

Ministry of Magic

1:40 PM

"Bugger!" Emily swore to herself as the man she had been attending to let out a gasp and stopped breathing.

Emily shouted, "I need some help here."

She then immediately checked and the man's heart had stopped as well. As she started CPR, she was briefly blinded by a bright flash. She scowled at the man that had just taken her picture.

"Rather than just snap pictures of a man dying, why don't you help me out?"

The paparazzi just mumbled something about not being a paramedic and snapped another picture. To her surprise, the man was suddenly pushed aside by someone that was clearly a Weasley. _Missing ear_, Emily thought, _that is George_.

George knelt by her and asked, "How can I help?"

"Do you know CPR?" She asked.

George gave her a look that screamed, _"You're kidding, right,"_ and answered, "You've met Luna, haven't you?"

Emily just nodded as she gave a quick breath to the man.

George took over on giving the man chest compressions. As she continued to breathe for the man, Emily looked for a paramedic. She finally spotted one and motioned for him. At first, the paramedic just stared at her, a look of surprise crossing his face. Once he noticed that she and George were performing CPR, he came over.

"Aren't you...?"

He never got to finish the question as Emily just glared at him and said forcefully, "Does that really matter right now?"

The paramedic looked at the man, and then took over giving compressions from George. Another paramedic came up as well and the two took over treating the man.

Emily stood up, shaking. She had never thought she would use the first responder training they had taken from Luna. Emily had never experienced the kind of trauma she had seen today, and these were just the minor injuries. She looked over to the man she had just been trying to help and saw the paramedics covering him with a sheet. The man had died. Emily just stared for a minute and started to shake, sobbing.

She felt a hand touch her gently on the face and looked up.

"Hey, you ok?" George asked softly.

She just shook her head. This was just too much. She felt George take her by the shoulder as he whispered.

"Let's get you out of here."

He walked her to what appeared to be a small tent. Once they entered the tent, she and George disapparated.

Ron Weasley

Ministry of Magic

Stairwell  
1:45 PM

Ron fought back the urge to scream in frustration. The door to the atrium was blocked by several large chunks of rubble. Ron took just a minute to gather himself before he turned to face at least a couple of hundred people in the stairwell. He felt Hermione give his hand an encouraging squeeze. He gave her a weak smile and made an "after you" gesture to her, inviting her to speak. She just shook her head.

Ron knew what she was trying to tell him. He was the one everyone was following, so he would have to be the one to let them know they had one more hurdle to overcome. As he was trying to come up with what to say, he looked at his watch. He was surprised to see it had only been an hour and a half since everything had began. It had seemed like endless hours to Ron.

Ron knew, as Laura had pointed out several times, that he could have just left the other six floors alone, and they would have gotten here sooner. Ron has asked her if she would then just leave those trapped on the other floors to die. Laura did not answer his question. He didn't need her to, because he knew what she would have done.

Then there was Hermione. She never ceased to amaze him, and her actions today were no different. When they came on their first critically injured person, Ron was at a loss at what to do. Hermione immediately took charge, quickly doing the best she could for the person, and then creating an emergency portkey to take the patient to where Ron had planned for the triage area to be in the atrium. Where Laura fought him every step of the way this afternoon, Hermione quietly offered him her unwavering support. In the middle of a major crisis, Ron found himself falling in love with his wife all over again.

Ron was broken out of his reverie by the sound of Hermione's voice.

"Ron."

"Right. So, Hermione and I are going to vanish the rubble blocking the door."

Ron then asked those closest to step back. He then pointed his wand at the rubble blocking the door and cast a vanishing charm. It took him and Hermione about twenty minutes to vanish all of the rubble. Once the rubble was vanished, he tried the door and it wouldn't open.

"Bugger," He muttered.

He then cast Alohomora and the door opened.

Ron turned to the waiting witches and wizards in the stairway and addressed them.

"When you get into the atrium follow the directions that are given to you by the rescue workers."

No one said anything, so Ron stepped aside and motioned for them to head to the atrium.


	10. Jericho Part 2

Jericho

Part II

Ginny Potter/Emily Watts

The Burrow

1:45 PM

Ginny

Ginny wanted to turn the TV off. In the last half hour, they had pretty much said the same details over and over again. Lee would offer some of his own commentary at times, but he was primarily just running a live feed from one of the muggle TV channels, so it was just not providing any new information.

The reports were focusing on the cause of the explosion at the Ministry. The current theory was that a gas line running above the Ministry had ruptured causing a massive explosion. Ginny was not sure if that was what the Ministry actually believed had happened, or if something else had caused the explosion and the gas line story was just a cover.

Ginny was happy to learn that all of her family had been accounted for, all except her prat of a brother, Ron. He still had not turned up. Ginny was fuming to herself, "_If he and Hermione had gone some place to make up, she would kill the both of them for putting the family through this worry. _ Ginny felt there was no excuse for not contacting the family. Even if they might have had no way of knowing what was going on.

Deep in her heart, Ginny knew that was not the case. Her brother and sister-in-law were at the damn Ministry. Knowing the two of them, they were caught up in helping and neither of them had thought to let the family know they were unharmed. That would be typical of the two of them.

Ginny's attention was drawn back to the TV when Fleur asked,

"Isn't that..?"

Ginny tuned out the rest of Fleur's question when she saw to whom she was referring.

On the screen, Emily appeared to be kissing a man that was lying on the street, Ginny just stared for a couple of seconds, not believing what she was seeing.

"That cow." She hissed as she got up and left for the kitchen. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. _She is an actress,_ she thought, _nothing should surprise me when it comes to her._

Ginny kept dwelling on the fact that she had been hexed by Emily. Although Harry called it pepper spray, Ginny knew a hex, and that was a hex. Since that time, she had a bit of an attitude when it came to Harry's ex. Ginny then heard the sound of someone apparating into the back yard. She quickly got up and headed to the back door.

Emily Watts.

Emily started to protest once she realized what George intended to do. Before she was able to finish voicing her objections, she felt a squeezing sensation in her stomach and the inside of the tent disappeared. A second later, she was looking at the Burrow. She whirled around.

"George, why did you bring me here?" She tried not to sound worried. Ron had told her that none of the Weasleys knew what Ginny had done last week. She really did not want to have another confrontation with Ginny. She knew from Ron that Ginny had been a tad angry with her. Emily did not regret what she did; Ginny had no right to come to her flat and start hitting one of her guests. George seemed surprised by her worried tone, but he did not say anything immediately.

After a brief pause, he answered.

"You looked like you needed…"

"What the hell is she doing here?" Ginny's harsh voice interrupted.

George looked surprised at Ginny's harsh tone, as he answered.

"I ran into her on the street outside the ministry. She was…"

"I know what she was doing," Ginny interrupted harshly. "Why didn't you just stay with that man you were snogging? Why bother us?"

"Snogging?" George asked, clearly confused, "What the hell are you talking about, Gin?" His last words had a hint of anger in it.

"It's all over the TV," Ginny answered back. "She was snogging some poor bloke on the street."

Emily had no idea what Ginny was talking about, and then she remembered shouting at a photographer while giving a man CPR. Emily did her best, but could stop herself from letting out a quick laugh before she answered Ginny.

"Ginny, why don't you quit before you embarrass yourself again."

Her answer only caused Ginny to become even angrier.

"Embarrass myself?" The redhead fired back, "I'm not the one that was snogging some poor bloke on national TV."

Emily just gave Ginny the sweetest smile she could.

"First of all, if I were to snog a bloke, he certainly would not consider himself to be a poor bloke," Emily paused briefly before adding, "Just ask your husband."

Ginny saw red at Emily's last statement. Emily did not give her the chance to answer back.

"Now, if you had bothered to join in Luna's first aid training, you would know I was not snogging that man, I was performing CPR."

Ginny

Ginny glared at Emily, as she tried to figure out exactly when she had lost control of the situation. _Probably when the tart had mentioned Harry,_ she thought. She needed to regain the upper hand quickly. Ginny knew most of her anger was at the fact that Emily had beat her when she had gone to her flat the other day. _She just caught me by surprise, _ Ginny told herself. I won't let that happen again. She had thought that mentioning Emily's snogging session on TV would put Emily in her place. That did not work out the way she planned. Ginny searched her mind for what she knew about CPR, and then shot back without thinking.

"So you were saving the poor bloke?"

Emily looked away from her when she finished that statement; Ginny could see tears forming in her eyes. She had not expected her statement to get to the muggle girl.

"Actually, the man died." Emily said softly.

"So you killed him?" Ginny stated immediately. Emily looked as if Ginny had slapped her and turned to George.

"George, please get me out of here."

George just glared at Ginny.

"Nice," was all George said.

Ginny felt her triumphant smile go away at George's response; she felt a stab of anger at her brother for siding with Emily. Ron had already sided with Emily, and had not spoken to her since she confronted Hermione about leaving him. Now it seemed George was also turning against her. _What is it with this bitch?_ She thought. She just looked at George.

"Oh, come on. Not you too?" She asked, not realizing the can of worms she was opening.

George looked at her, clearly confused.

"What do you mean you too?"

"You'd better get the princess out of here. She is starting to…" Ginny quickly answered, trying to change the subject.

"Talk to Ron lately?" Emily interrupted her angrily.

Ginny was taken aback by the question. Emily knew that she and Ron were not speaking. She also should know that none of the other Weasleys was aware of the rift between her and Ron. Ron had not said anything because he did not want the rest of the family to know he and Hermione were having problems. She had not said anything because…well, that really didn't matter she thought. Now Emily was telling the family about the rift between her and her youngest brother.

Ginny started to turn away. _Best to end this now before anyone decides to ask questions._

As she turned, she practically ran into her mother. Molly was looking between her and Emily, and then she asked.

"Ginny, what are you and Ron fighting about?"

"We're not fighting," she answered immediately. _To be fighting, we would have to be speaking to each other, _she thought as she tried to get around her mother.

In the meantime, she could hear George and Emily whispering back and forth. It sounded like Emily was also trying to avoid the subject as well. Emily must have failed because George looked at her and asked.

"What did you do to Hermione?"

Ron Weasley

Ministry of Magic

Atrium

1:55 PM

Ron watched as the last of his group exited the stairwell. Ron sighed, _It had been a long afternoon_. Looking at his watch, he was surprised to see that it had only been just under of couple of hours. _Damn,_ he thought,_ It seemed like a lot more time had passed. _Hermione started to head for the door, and he stopped her. He wanted to make sure everything was okay, before she stepped out. She gave him an angry look, but he was thankful that she did not argue with him.

Ron was the first to step out into the atrium and he stopped dead in his tracks. Ron felt his heart quicken as he stared at the carnage that was in the space that used to be the atrium. As he scanned the atrium, it was clear that there had been some kind of explosion. Ron could make out at least six areas from which blasts had originated. _This was no accident,_ he thought to himself as he finished looking around.

"Look what the cat dragged in," a familiar voice came from behind him. Ron turned around to see Harry quickly approaching him and Hermione.

Harry gave Hermione a brief hug, and then shook his hand.

"Any more below?" Harry asked.

"Not sure," Ron answered, . There were many areas in the lower floors that he was not able to get to. "We could not get to anything below the level where the atrium floor collapsed down to." Ron paused still taking everything in. "How bad is it?"

Harry sighed.

"Casualties are high. Over two hundred dead, and over a thousand injured."

Ron tried to hide his shock.

"Any idea what happened?" He asked.

"Right now, the best theory we have is a gas main exploded." Harry answered.

Ron looked around the atrium again. Nothing Ron saw led him to believe that this was caused by a gas explosion.

"Gas explosion," Ron answered skeptically. "Gas explosion, my ass."

"Ron, what are you on about?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Harry, look around. Tell me what you see?" Ron asked.

Harry

Harry stared at Ron, not sure what he meant by that. Ron must have seen Harry was confused because he asked him to look around. Harry looked and he could see the rescue teams working on getting the injured out of the atrium. Most of the critically and seriously injured had been evacuated, so the pace was a bit slower now. He could see where the gas main had exploded, causing the floor to collapse forming a crater that went down at least four floors. If what he learned from Ron and Hermione was correct, the crater went further down than that. He looked around and saw several more areas that appeared to have been damaged by secondary explosions but nothing really out of the ordinary.

Seeing that, Harry did not seem to get what he was trying to say Ron said.

"There was more than one explosion." Ron stated.

"You had the main explosion and then several secondary explosions after that." Harry answered.

Ron continued to look over the atrium. What he saw and what Harry was telling him just did not match. If it had been a gas explosion as Harry said, then there would have been just one massive explosion. There would be no secondary explosions because the gas would have been used in the first explosion. A gas explosion would only have one blast area. Ron counted at least six. In addition, with a gas explosion, the blast damage would have started at a fixed point and worked its way out; that was not the case here. Ron was by no means an explosive expert, but what he saw around him resembled bomb blasts, not breached gas lines.

"This was no gas explosion." Ron said more to himself than anyone else.

"What are you on about, Ron?" Harry asked. Ron did not hear him. He was turning his mind back to what he had learned in the states after September 11th. He continued to look around the atrium, now trying to find anything that might be out of place, and hoping his theory was wrong…

Hermione Weasley

Hermione watched as her husband continued to study the Atrium. She knew better than to bother him when he was like this. Ron was in full inspector mode. Well, that was what she called it. She knew Ron was trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together in his mind, and when he was doing this, it was best just to let him think things through.

She also tried to figure out what he was thinking by going over what Ron had said to Harry. He seemed to be concerned about the fact that there was more than one explosion. _He doesn't think this was a gas explosion,_ she thought. Hermione started to go over the possible causes of an explosion on this scale in her mind. She looked around one more time and did her best to hide her fear as she realized that Ron thought this was not an accident but a deliberate act.

Ron Weasley

Ron finished looking over the atrium for the third time. He was now convinced that the explosions were from bombs, and not from any kind of gas leak. That meant someone had to have set the devices in the lobby. Ron continued to look around; if someone had set explosives, then they may have set additional devices to do more damage as rescue workers arrived. He was now looking for secondary devices. After a few more scans, he finally spotted what he was looking for.

Near the wreckage of the fountain of magical brotherhood was a garbage bin. What caught Ron's attention was the bin was completely undisturbed. Ron quickly started towards the bin, and Harry quickly following him asking,

"Ron, what's going on?"

As he got closer to the bin, he cast a quick spell to detect any magical spells on the bin, and found that it was protected by a shield. Ron stopped dead in his tracks. He did not want to get any closer to the bin. If the bin turned out to be what he thought it was, it might have a proximity fuse and there was no need to take any chances. Ron heard as Harry and Hermione approached him from behind. He turned to face them and he spoke louder than he had planned

"Don't come any closer." Harry and Hermione stopped dead in their tracks.

The atrium needed to be evacuated before the device he had found went off. Ron debated for a few seconds then held out his hand "Harry, I need your radio."

"Ron, what is it?" He asked as he handed the radio to him.

Before he keyed the radio, he cast the strongest shield spell he knew around the three of them, and then he spoke.

"Inspector 101, Flashpoint."

Flashpoint was the code for a bomb threat.

The radio answered back,

"101, what is your location."

Ron quickly advised central of his location, before he gave the following command,

"Central, initiate an evacuation of the atrium and have Scotland Yard dispatch a bomb squad to this location."

Harry just stared at Ron as he finished issuing his commands.

"Inspector Weasley?"

Ron looked up as Sergeant Doyle or Boyle. Actually, Ron was just too tired to care when the bomb squad approached him. Ron did not answer; he just nodded.

"The device has been disarmed." The sergeant paused briefly before continuing, "You lucked out. That was a powerful device; if it had gone off..."

Ron did not pay attention to the rest of what the sergeant was saying. He did not need him to tell Ron that the casualties would have been devastating had the last device gone off. Ron was not sure why the device did not go off, but he knew the last bomb was meant to kill those trying to rescue and treat the injured.

"Bloody hell," Harry said as the sergeant left.

Ron sighed, as he looked at his best mate.

"That about sums it up."

Harry looked at Ron for a minute then the two of them heard Hermione laugh as they started to play rock-paper-scissors. Ron smiled as he covered Harry's hand with his. "Paper covers rock, mate."

Harry sighed and then asked, "So what do I tell Kingsley?"

Ron looked over Harry's shoulder to the crater where the Ministry atrium was, and answered. "Tell him someone has just declared war on the Ministry."

Ron then stood up, took Hermione's hand, and dissapparated.


	11. And Justice for All

I know it has been a bit since I have updated this story. This chapter was a lot harder to write than I thought, and has been rewritten at least three times. My beta tells me the chapter is fine, though to be honest I am not entirely happy with it myself, but I am not sure another rewrite would help so here it is. I will let you be the judge, let me know by just leaving a review.

And Justice for All

Conner felt a chill run down his spine. He tried his best to fight his nervousness. He had been sitting in what was called an interview room by the Auror's. He had reported to the Auror Department as requested, and then was directed to this room. Now it seemed like he had been waiting for hours for someone to come and talk to him.

Conner told himself that this was just routine. After all, the Ministry needed to find out how someone was able to plant muggle explosives in the Ministry. He knew that many of his co-workers had not been interviewed by Aurors, but then again they did not have a job requiring them to check the wands of everyone that came into the Ministry like he did.

Conner felt his heart drop as he finished the last thought. Anyone going into the Ministry would have to see him to check his or her wand. Whoever had planted those bombs had to have gone through him…Conner found himself suddenly looking back at his last few days at work before the explosions…

Morgaine Lefay watched Conner O'Briant through the observation window. He did not seem too concerned at first, but as time went on, she could see that he was starting to get nervous. That was a good thing. She wanted him to be nervous and off-balance when she went in to interview him. She once again looked down at his file.

O'Briant had started with the Ministry shortly after Kingsley had become the permanent Minister of Magic.

O'Briant was one of the many muggleborns that had been hired by the Ministry. Morgaine could not believe how low the new standards were for Ministry employees. Who would have thought muggleborns would ever be allowed to work for her Ministry. ? Many of the muggleborns that had come to the Ministry were nothing but trouble.

O'Briant was one of them. It did not take much to figure out how the bombs had been planted at the Ministry. In the worst case, O'Briant had helped some of his fellow muggleborns, or at best, he had turned a blind eye as they smuggled the muggle devices into the Ministry. Morgaine was convinced that no one would have been able to plant those bombs without the help of someone within the Ministry. She did not care what Inspector Weasley believed. Morgaine sighed in frustration.

Early into the investigation, she had felt that who ever had planted the explosives had help from someone in the Ministry. Inspector Weasley had been less than open to that idea. He did not come out and say anything outright, but he just said they needed to be careful how they handled things and cautioned against starting what he called a "witch hunt." He did at least assign her and several others to look into the background of Ministry employees.

It was while she was reviewing those files that O'Briant had come to her attention. O'Briant was part of the Ministry security detail assigned to check the wands of those entering the Ministry. That was when it hit her. Anyone entering the Ministry would have to go through O'Briant. She then reviewed O'Briant's reports for the days prior to the attack on the Ministry, and he had not reported anything unusual or suspicious.

She then found herself asking, how is it that O'Briant could have missed someone bringing in seven containers? Even if it had been over the course of several days, wouldn't that have raised some kind of suspicion? She came to the conclusion that O'Briant had not missed the person entering the Ministry with the containers entering the ministry, but instead had allowed him to bring the devices into the Ministry. He was a part of the attack.

When she presented her theory to Inspector Weasley, he was less than agreeable…

"Besides the fact that your suspect worked the security desk, what other evidence do you have that he's involved?" Inspector Weasley looked a bit annoyed as he finished his question.

"Inspector Weasley," Morgaine tried to hide her irritation as she continued, "Anyone coming into the Ministry would have to check in with O'Briant. The fact that…"

"Have you ever worked at the security desk?" Morgaine bit back the first response that came to her mind. The least Weasley could do is let her finish what she had to say before he interrupted her.

"No, sir," she answered

Weasley regarded her for a few minutes, and then he continued.

"Imagine you have at least 30 or 40 people queued up. You are the only person checking those people's wands. You are concentrating on checking wands, so do you notice as several people in line get tired of waiting and just walk by?"

Morgaine knew where Inspector Weasley was going. She knew he had been complaining for the last couple of years about the Ministry's lack of security. She also knew this was his main argument for changing the Ministry's security procedures, so she did not answer the inspector. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke again

"Auror Lefay," Weasley sounded tired, "If this is the only evidence you have, then all you have is a theory. We do not arrest people on just a theory."

Morgaine started to speak, but Weasley interrupted her, "Bring me some evidence that O'Briant was involved in the bombings or move on…"

It had been several days and Morgaine had been unable to uncover any evidence of O'Briant's involvement in the attack. She had asked Weasley for permission to bring O'Briant in for questioning, but her request was denied. She needed O'Briant to confess to his involvement in the attack.

When she saw O'Briant was scheduled to come in for a follow-up interview, she saw her chance. She arranged to take over the interview. She was going to get her confession.

"The recent bombing at the Ministry of Magic highlights the need to give the Ministry additional tools to combat this kind of terrorist attack."

Ron looked at the faces of the Wizengamot members that were in attendance. Ron did not like what he was seeing. Many seemed to be nodding their heads in agreement with what Dykema had just stated. It was not that Ron disagreed with the idea of capturing those responsible and even preventing attacks such as the one on the Ministry; of course, he wanted that. He just did not agree with Dykema's proposals. Many of the things Dykema was proposing would reverse many of the reforms that Minister Shacklebolt had brought about.

After the bombing, Ron had feared that something like this would happen, just like it did in the States after September 11th. The Patriot Act, in Ron's opinion, did very little in the way of preventing terrorism in the States, but did succeed in eroding away the rights of some Americans. Ron smiled as Hermione stood back to give her rebuttal.

"Director, esteemed members of the Wizengamot," Hermione paused for just a second before continuing. "As I sit here listening to these proposals, I am reminded of an old muggle saying, 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'"

She paused for a minute, allowing her statement to sink in, and then continued.

"Laws similar to these were passed in the States shortly after the September 11th attacks. These laws did nothing to help prevent terrorist attacks. However, they did make it easier for the government to target those they felt were a threat. The government could easily rounded up any persons deemed as "enemy combatants" and imprison them for an indefinite period of time without a trial. Is that what we want to do here?"

She waited another brief second before continuing, "Under the laws that Director Dykema is proposing, during the time leading up to the war with Voldemort, Harry Potter could have been declared a threat to the Ministry and imprisoned just for warning the Wizarding world that Lord Voldemort had returned."

Ron watched as his wife continued to make her statements. Ron thought she presented a very strong argument. Using both the war and more recent events in the Wizarding world, she argued that there needed to be checks on what the government could do, otherwise it would be easy for someone to abuse their power. Ron could not help but feel a sense of pride as Hermione finished her presentation. After the case Hermione presented, Ron thought that the decision was a no-brainer and the bill that Dykema proposed would be killed right away.

The Chief Warlock stood up and spoke, "Director Dykema, Mrs. Weasley, we will take this matter under advisement."

Ron could not believe what he was hearing. They were actually considering Dykema's bill…

Conner looked up when the door to the room opened and a young woman came into the room. She was holding a file. She sat down, and began to review the file, not saying anything. After several minutes of watching her review his file, he finally spoke.

"Is this going to take much longer? My shift starts in another hour."

The woman looked at him coolly for a second and then returned to the file, ignoring his question. Conner fought back his irritation. He did not want to seem uncooperative with the Aurors.

Finally, the woman closed the file, and looked at him.

"You should know before we start that , this is just a formality."

O'Briant looked at the woman. _What was she on about,_ he thought to himself, but he did not say anything to her. After a minute or so of silence, she continued.

"So tell me who else you were working with."

O'Briant looked at the woman, dumbfounded.

"Who was I working with?" _She should already know this._ "You mean who else was working security on the day of the attack?" He asked hoping to clear up what she was trying to find out.

The woman slammed her hand down on the table, startling O'Briant.

"You know, Conner, if you cooperate, things will go much easier for you."

Conner felt his heart start to pound in his chest. _What the hell is she talking about_, he thought.

"I am trying to," he answered, sounding calmer than he felt. He was missing something.

The woman just laughed, and then stated, "So then give me the names of the others in your cell."

"Cell? What cell?" He asked.

The woman just laughed.

"I have to admit, you're good." She then stood up. "I'm going to give you some time to think things over. We'll talk soon."

Shortly after the woman left, two men entered.

"Get up." One of them commanded.

He stood up. One of the men waived his wand, and O'Briant's hands were suddenly bound. They led him out of the room and after a few minutes, they came to a heavy oak door that must have had wards placed on it. One of the two waved his wand at the door and it opened. They led him into another corridor with several doors. O'Briant also felt the temperature drop as he entered the corridor. He quickly recognized what was going on and turned to the two men.

"You can't do this."

The two men did not answer him as they unlocked one of the doors, and pushed him into the cell. As the men started to leave, O'Briant felt the effects of the Dementor's starting to take hold.

"Things are going better than I thought." Edison set down The Daily Prophet as he finished addressing the four other men sitting with him. "It seems the Ministry is looking for someone to blame, and they don't care how they go about it."

Alex Forrest shook his head as he read the article, and then looked up.

"Nothing had been passed. According to this, these laws are being debated, and are strongly opposed by two of the Wizarding communities' greatest heroes."

Edison smiled as the man finished.

"That's right, two of the three. Even the Golden Trio is divided by these measures."

"That's a bit of a stretch." Auric Gould sounded skeptical, "This article does not say how Harry Potter feels about this, one way or another."

"That is true," Edison answered. "Mr. Potter's silence on the issue speaks louder than any words he might say on the matter."

Edison smiled as he looked at his four companions. "The question is what do we do next?"

"The whole lot of them is barking, How can they even think of taking something like this 'under advisement?'" Ginny just sat silently. Ron had been on a world-class rant, since he had arrived for the Weasley's Sunday dinner. Ron just looked around the table, clearly agitated.

"He's been on about this since Friday," Harry whispered to her and Ginny just nodded. Harry's whispering must have gotten Ron's attention, because he addressed Harry with his next statement.

"Considering what we went through during the war, I would have thought you would have taken the time to come and say something on this."

Ginny did not like the accusatory tone in Ron's statement. Harry squeezed her shoulder gently, and then answered Ron.

"Ron, you know I don't do politics."

"So you think that Dykema is right?" Ron asked hotly.

"I did not say that." Harry answered back, trying to hold back his temper. Harry tried to continue, but Ron didn't let him.

"What do you think it says when the Great Harry Potter says nothing about a law that would take away many of the rights for wizards that Hermione has worked so hard for?"

Harry did not answer Ron, so he continued.

"Harry, at some point you are going to have to take a stand, or before you know it someone is going to use your silence as evidence that you support something you don't,."

"Weren't Hermione's arguments enough to stop this madness?" Ginny asked Ron.

Ron did not answer; instead, he just continued eating his dinner.

Ginny glared at him for a few minutes, and then returned to her own dinner.

Over the course of the evening's dinner, Ginny had tried several times to engage both Ron and Hermione in some type of conversation. The results were always the same; Ginny was ignored. Ginny fought back the urge just to start yelling at them. They had been like this to her, since they reconciled just before the attack on the Ministry.

The evening was finally winding down. As a matter of fact, as far as she knew, she and Harry were the only family still at the Burrow. She was sitting in the living room, waiting for Harry to finish talking, when she heard someone enter the room.

She looked up as Bill sat down across from her. He just sat silently for a minute, watching her, before he finally spoke.

"Dinner was just a bit awkward."

"You think?" She answered sarcastically. "You would think those two would know better." She tried not to sound bitter, but she knew she failed.

Bill just raised his eyebrows at her, and just looked at her shaking his head.

"So you think the problem is Ron and Hermione?"

Ginny had to laugh; it was that or start bitching about her brother and his wife. As far as she was concerned, if they wanted to act like a couple of pratts that was fine with her; she had better things to worry about.

"So you didn't do anything that might have made them angry with you?"

"Of course not." She answered immediately.

"So you think that breaking Hermione's nose…"

"She deserved that." Ginny answered back angrily, "I honestly have no idea why Ron would even take her back after she left him like that."

Bill sighed.

"Did you even think to ask either her or Ron what was going on?"

She just looked at Bill, and shook her head.

"Let me say this…those two have been going through hell for the last couple of years. Just look what they had to go through."

She knew Bill was referring to the separation they had been forced to go through, as well as Hermione losting the baby she had been carrying. But that was a couple of years ago. They made it through that.

She looked at Bill, and she realized that there was more going on with Ron and Hermione than she had been told. All Harry had told her was that Hermione had left, but he never told her why. Actually, he never got the chance to tell her, since she left to find Hermione and…Oh Merlin, she turned to look at Bill.

"What's going on, Bill?" She asked.

"It's not my place to tell you, Gin."

"What have I done?" she asked. "They will never…"

"Ginny," Bill said gently, "Hermione is Ron's world. She has been from the day they became friends. Anyone that hurts her…"

She already knew the rest. People could say or do anything they wanted to Ron, but if you say something or do anything to hurt Hermione...

"Ron's never going to forgive me; is he?"

"Gin, you have to find a way to make peace with them. I would suggest you start by talking to Hermione. If she can forgive you, Ron will fall in line."

Ginny knew Bill was right. Now she just had to get Hermione to talk to her.

O'Briant was in hell. In his cold cell, he was forced to relive some of the worst moments in his life over and over again. Even though he had no direct contact with the Dementors, he was still affected by them. O'Briant was willing to do anything to make the suffering stop, and he would do just that.

He felt some relief as he was seated once again across from the woman he met what seemed like a life time ago. He just looked at her desperately and asked, "What do you want from me?"

She just smiled…

Morgaine smiled as O'Briant finished speaking.

She did not care how strong someone was; with the right motivation, they would always break. She was surprised that it took the whole weekend for O'Briant to break, but that did not matter. In the end, he broke.

"Conner ," she said gently, "All I need you to do is tell me who helped you plant the bombs."

Conner sat silently for a minute. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts. Then he spoke.

"Just tell me who you want me to name." He answered weakly.

Morgaine did not say anything at first. She just stared at the man; her mind was reeling as she realized she had been wrong. O'Briant did not have anything to do with the attacks like he said all along. She also knew that she could not release him. If word got out about how she had put him in the same holding cell as the Dementors, at best she would just lose her job. More than likely, she would end up in Azkaban.

There was no way she could release him, but she also knew there was no way she would be able to convict him. In the past, she would have just shipped him off to Azkaban, but with the recent reforms passed by the mudblood Weasley, that was not an option. She would have to talk to Dykema about banishing the man…


	12. Gross Insubordination

Hello everyone.

I want to warn you that there is going to be time between chapter updates. The Forsaken is beginning to have several new things happening, all of which will be very important to the overall story, and I want to make sure I get them all just right.

We are going to start to see more of Harry, Ginny as well as some other characters in future chapters.

I am curious to see if any you can guess the fallout over what happens at the end of this chapter. Post your ideas in the reviews section.

I also want to once again thank Obessed Ronhermione shipper for her hard work beta reading this chapter as well as the rest of this story. Her help along with Nancy Kelleher has been invaluable in the developement of this story.

I also want to address a review I received at the end of redemption, stating I left a lot of loose ends.

Redemption ended exactly the way I intended it to. In real life not all things are resolved by the end of the day, week, month or year. With regards to the Walker case, there were no clear winners, Draco did the only thing he could do, and by withdrawing his complaint he ended things in a stalemate...I know it sucks but sometimes that's just how things go.

Enough rambling... Here is the next chapter of "The Forsaken...Enjoy.

12

Gross Insubordination

Ginny

The cool night air felt good as Ginny flew around the Burrow's makeshift quidditch pitch. Nothing helped Ginny clear her head better than flying. After Bill had talked with her, she felt the need to take to the air. Ginny needed to take a good, hard look at herself; the more she thought about it, the more she really did not like what she saw.

She had never really thought of herself as judgmental. However, as she looked back over the last several weeks, she realized that she had become the type of person she hated. She had leapt to the wrong conclusion when she had heard Hermione had left her brother. Rather than taking the time to ask either of them what was going on, she placed the blame on Hermione, and acted on it.

Her relationship with Ron and Hermione now seemed to be destroyed. _Hell, the two of them would not even acknowledge her._ She had to find a way to fix this, but how could she do that when the two of them wouldn't talk to her. Ginny knew that if she had any hope of fixing things, it would have to start with her sister-in-law.

As she was trying to figure out what she should do, she spotted Hermione sitting by the pond. _Well, there's no time like the present, _she thought to herself as she flew in the direction of her sister-in-law.

As she approached, Hermione jumped up quickly, spinning around to face Ginny with her wand out. Ginny quickly put her hands up.

"Hey, it's just me," she said quickly.

She was not surprised by Hermione's reaction. Since returning from the war, Hermione, Ron and Harry were known to draw their wands when surprised. So far no one had been cursed, but seeing that Hermione still had not lowered her wand, Ginny found herself wondering if that was about to change.

Hermione didn't say a word; she just turned and started to walk away.

"Hermione, wait. I need to talk to you," she cried out. _Blimey_, Ginny thought to herself. She sounded like she was begging and hated it.

Hermione whirled around angrily.

"You said everything you needed to when you attacked me. There is nothing to talk about."

"Hermione, I was wrong and I'm sorry. How can I make this right?"

Hermione glared at Ginny for a minute before answering, sadly.

"You know, with everything I have been going through, I needed a friend instead of…" Hermione swiped angrily at the tears on her cheeks, "There is no fixing this, Ginny."

"I'm a Weasley. You know how we can be sometimes."

Hermione sighed, "I am so tired of the 'I'm a Weasley' excuse. At this point, I just don't care, Ginny."

Ginny thought desperately, trying to think of a way she could at least get through to Hermione.

"Do you remember what Ron did to Harry when he thought Harry had hurt me again," she answered back sounding much calmer than she felt. "Harry forgave Ron. Why can't you forgive me?"

Hermione just turned to Ginny, with a startled look. She seemed to be fighting with herself. After a few minutes, she just cried out,

"Oh Ginny." Hermione flung herself at Ginny, hugging her tightly as the two witches found a way to forgive each other.

Hermione

Hermione sighed heavily when she saw the large stack of arrest reports on her desk. Apparently, it had been a busy weekend for the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. Hermione always reviewed the previous day's arrest reports first thing in the morning. She would normally only need a half hour to do this, but this stack would take much longer to review. She briefly entertained the thought of skipping her review because her whole day would be thrown off. Remembering that she started this to get a better idea of the workload her office would have as well as to prevent someone from undue prosecution, she had her assistant re-arrange her morning.

She spent the morning reviewing reports of transgressions as minor as under age magic, unlicensed apparition to major ones like mugglebaiting and even homicide. She nearly missed the detention report of a Conan O'Briant. Since it was just a detention report, she almost skipped reading it.

Hermione glared angrily as she read the report. Considering how emotions had been running high after the bombing of the Ministry, Ron had agreed to let her review the evidence against anyone that was suspected in the bombing. She requested this to prevent what had happened to O'Briant. The report just simply stated that O'Briant was suspected of aiding in the bombing. There was no evidence that O'Briant had anything to do with the attack on the Ministry, just the suspicions of the Auror taking part in the investigation. The Auror's logic was that O'Briant was the security officer in charge of the check-in desk in the Ministry lobby. It was his job to check the wands of all visitors coming into the Ministry. The persons planting the bombs would have had to gotten by O'Briant and there was no way O'Briant could miss the containers with the bombs; therefore, the Auror concluded that he must have aided the bombers.

The report went on to acknowledge the case was purely speculation, but the Auror felt that they would be able to extract a confession from O'Briant as well as the names of his accomplices. Hermione could not help being outraged at the phrases 'extract a confession' and 'his accomplices.' _"Torture, you mean." _Hermione sputtered angrily as she stood up. She thought better of both Ron and Harry. After what had happened to her at Malfoy Manor during the hunt for Tom Riddle's horcruxes, she would think the two of them would never resort to the torture of a prisoner. Well they might not have a problem with torture, but she sure did.

She would put an end to this even if her best friend and husband would go down for it. Nothing justified the torture and abuse of another human being. She grabbed the detention report as she stepped out of her office.

Harry

Harry stifled a yawn as he continued to review the list of vendors Ron had given him to call. Harry told himself again, _"This is not a complete waste of time." _Ron was convinced that if he could find out who had purchased the barrels in which the bombs had been planted, it would lead them to whomever had planted the devices.

Harry looked up and saw Ron picking up the phone to call another distributor. It had taken about a week and a half for the manufacturer of the barrels to provide them with a list of distributors in the UK. Harry looked down at the list of a hundred and fifty companies he had to call. _"At least Ron was calling the same amount." _

"_It's all Hermione's fault," _he laughed to himself. Ron was never that much into research at school or even during the hunt for the Horcruxes. Now, however, Ron was known for the painstaking digging and research he would do to solve a case. _Hermione has been good for him, _Harry thought to himself.

Harry stretched his arms, and started to yawn, however he cut the yawn short when he looked out the office window. He saw Hermione quickly approaching the office and she did not look happy. In fact, she looked like she was ready to take on a dragon.

"Bugger," Harry said aloud. Ron looked at Harry, but before he could ask, Harry just gestured in Hermione's direction trying to hide his amusement.

"What did you do now?"

Ron looked up as his wife burst into the office. Harry almost laughed as the color drained from Ron's face. Hermione just stormed up to Ron and slammed a piece of parchment on his desk.

"Can you explain this, Ronald?" she asked in a calm voice.

Ron just reached for the paper without saying anything. _At least he was getting better at handling Hermione's temper._ Harry started to get up to leave. This was none of his business.

Hermione just glared at him. Harry sat back down. He knew that whatever this was, somehow he was in trouble with Ron. Harry did not say anything; he just waited to see what Ron would do.

As Ron read the parchment, his ears began to turn red. _This isn't good_, Harry thought. As Ron finished reading, he handed it to Harry.

"Bloody hell," he swore angrily, "The bint has gone round the twist."

Hermione saw red and stammered furiously.

"I won't even dignify that with…"

Harry looked up from the paper. _Oh, shit,_ he thought to himself, _she thinks Ron is talking about her._

Ron must not have noticed Hermione, because he just continued speaking angrily.

"I'll have that bint up on insubordination for this."

Hermione stopped and just stared at Ron, clearly confused. Harry finished reading the detention report and handed it back to Hermione.

"You have to admit she covered her tracks."

"What are you two on about?" Hermione asked.

Ron sighed, but did not answer Hermione.

"Lefay came to Ron last week wanting to get an arrest warrant for O'Briant," Harry answered for Ron. "He denied the request and told her to move on. O'Briant was not a suspect."

"So you knew nothing about this?" Hermione asked.

"Of course not!" Ron answered hotly. "Do you honestly think I would do something like this?"

Hermione's face softened at the hurt tone in Ron's voice. She knew she had jumped the gun, and it may have cost her.

"Of course not," She back peddled, "I thought you might have known O'Briant was being detained and…"

"We don't get reports on suspects that are detained," Ron answered, hotly. "Only on arrests and that is only on those that might be involved in a case I am working on."

"Hey, guys," Harry intervened, "That is not our main problem here."

Both Ron and Hermione looked at him. "We still have an innocent man in detention."

Ron stood up, "I'll have him released immediately."

"And what's to stop Lefay from detaining him again in the future?" Hermione asked.

"I will…" Hermione stopped Ron before he could finish.

"Lefay clearly has no intention of following any of your orders, Ron."

Ron looked at Hermione. "So what do you suggest?"

Hermione smiled, "Just let me handle this."

Harry had seen that look in Hermione's eyes before. In the past, that look did not bode well for Rita Skeeter. For a second, Harry felt sorry for Morgaine Lefay; that was just for a brief second because he knew the bint brought this on herself.

Morgaine Lefay

Who the hell did that Mudblood think she was? Morgaine thought to herself as she headed toward Hermione Granger's office. She, like many that believed in the sanctity of magical blood, refused to acknowledge Granger by her married name. In their eyes, the court order that dissolved their marriage several years ago was correct. They would never acknowledge the marriage between a mudblood and a pureblood wizard. In public, she would address the bint as Mrs. Weasley; Morgaine did not need to bring attention to her feelings on blood purity. In this Ministry, that attitude would probably get her fired.

As she headed towards Granger's office, she found herself wondering why she would be summoned to her office. As far as she knew, she had no pending cases that would require Granger's intention. She also knew that if she was in any kind of trouble she would have been summoned to the Head Auror's office, or Blood Traitor Weasley's office. Honestly, she had no idea what Laura saw in the man; _to_ _each their own,_ she thought.

She knocked on Granger's door. Granger made her wait a half a minute before she said, "Come in."

Granger motioned for her to have a seat in front of her desk. She appeared to be reading a file and once again she had to wait. Finally, she looked up and spoke.

"Tell me about Conner O'Briant?" Lefay did not why she was asked this question, but bit her tongue.

"Not much to tell you right now," As she answered, she found herself wondering how Granger had found out about O'Briant. She had not filed any paperwork.

"Really?" Granger sounded surprised.

Morgaine had to admit that for a mudblood, Granger was good. She knew that she had not added anything more to her statement and was waiting for Morgaine to explain. She had done the same thing many times hoping that a suspect would give up something trying to clarify a statement. She was good, but Morgaine would not fall for her trick.

After a minute of silence, Granger finally asked, "So if there is nothing to tell me, why has he been held in custody for the last 72 hours?"

Morgaine tried to hide her surprise as she asked herself, _how the hell does she know? _

"He is a person of interest in the Ministry bombing," she replied carefully.

"He is?" Granger leaned back, "How so?"

_Damn, she is good,_ she thought to herself. She had not seen Granger's trap coming. The bitch had maneuvered her into a corner and she had never seen it coming. She took a minute to try and gather her thoughts, but Granger was having none of it.

"Well, I'm waiting." Granger asked icily.

She would not let some mudblood intimidate her.

"There are several reasons. 1. He was in charge of security the day of the bombing. Whoever planted those barrels would have had to get by him. Therefore, he must have helped them. 2. The explosives were muggle devices and he is muggleborn so he would have ties to…"

"Do you have any hard evidence that he was involved?"

Lefay just stared at Granger, fighting back her anger.

"I take it by your silence that you do not. Have you ever heard of a shrinking charm?" _The bitch was going to let O'Briant get away scot-free_, she thought angrily. She however did not answer.

"What did you plan on presenting as evidence to the Wizengamot?" Granger waved her hand at the folder sitting on her desk.

"I was hoping to avoid the Wizengamot getting involved," she answered.

_That caught her off guard_, Lefay smiled to herself as Granger looked up at her, clearly surprised.

"Just how did you plan to manage that?"

"I want to use Administrative punishment for O'Briant."

Hermione

Hermione felt the color drain from her face at Lefay's answer. _Administrative punishment_, she thought to herself, what does she mean by that?

"Administrative punishment?" She sounded much calmer than she felt.

"I expect Director Dykema to sign off on this matter shortly," Morgaine stated confidently. She did not explain to Hermione what exactly she meant by Administrative punishment, and Hermione really did not want to even think about what she meant by that phrase. Whatever it was, it could not be legal.

She knew that was not the main issue here; O'Briant had to be released.

"Ms. Lefay," Hermione fought to keep her voice from shaking. "You have no evidence at all that O'Briant was involved in the attack on the Ministry. You will release him from custody immediately."

Le Fay glared at her without moving.

"Do you have any questions?"

"No, Miss Granger."

Hermione ignored the fact that Lefay had not used her married name.

"You are dismissed." She said waving her hand.

As Lefay turned to leave her office, Hermione said, "I expect to see a release report by the end of the day."

Lefay just stiffened at her door and then walked out of Hermione's office without saying a word.

Conan O'Briant

"At best, you are guilty of gross negligence leading to the deaths of over a hundred innocent witches and wizards. At worst, you are a collaborator. Either way we could send you to Azkaban for a very long time."

Conan could not believe what he was hearing. The man speaking was Donald Dykema, the Head of the Department of Magical Law. _How did this happen,_ he asked himself. He needed some advice, but he had been told since no charges had been filed against him yet, he did not have the right to have an attorney while being talked to. That did not seem right to Conan, however the Head of Magical Law would know what he was talking about, wouldn't he?

"Azkaban," he said dumbfounded, "But I've done nothing wrong."

Dykema just laughed. He started to throw pictures down on the table.

"You call this nothing wrong?" Dykema roared.

The pictures were of the dead and injured from the bombing at the Ministry, and they were quite graphic.

"O'Briant," Dykema said softly, "I am trying to help you out here. If this goes to the Wizengamot, there is no way you will get a fair trial. All we have to do is show these pictures and say that this was something you could have stopped."

"How could I have stopped this?" He buried his head trying to keep from crying. He kept telling himself, _"This isn't happening."_

"You could have done your job." Dykema shouted back. "If I had it my way, you'd be in front of the Wizengamot right now, but the Wizarding world needs to heal, and a trial will only reopen the wounds from the bombing."

"So you want me to just disappear?" He asked.

"You will surrender your wand and leave the magical community permanently."

"Leave the magical world?" O'Briant cried out, "I have a family."

"That is the best reason for you to do this. Think about your family. What would a trial do to them? You would be looked at as being no better than Peter Pettigrew. Your name will be destroyed. You can stop all that… all you have to do is just…"

Dykema was interrupted by the door to the room opening. O'Briant recognized Mrs. Weasley right away and she did not look happy at all.

Hermione

When Hermione had learned that O'Briant had not been released, she quickly tracked Auror Lefay to an interrogation room. She then made a bee line for the interrogation area. When she arrived, she asked the guard which room O'Briant was in. The guard did not answer her at first. When she threatened to bring him up on charges for violating O'Brian's civil rights, he finally told her that O'Briant was in with Director Dykema and Auror Lefay and they were not to be interrupted

She then quickly headed to the room and walked into the room without knocking. Dykema looked up, surprised as she walked in. She saw a man crying across from Dykema and Lefay; he appeared about to sign a document.

She ignored Dykema and addressed Auror Lefay.

"What is going on here?" She gestured towards O'Briant, "I ordered this man released this morning. Why is he still being held?"

"Ms. Weasley, this is a private matter and is none of your business."

Hermione noticed that O'Briant did not have a barrister with him. She addressed her question at O'Briant.

"Sir, do you have representation?"

"No Ma m," O' Brian answered softly, "I do not have the right to representation since I have not been formally charged with anything."

Hermione could not believe what she was hearing.

"Mr. O'Briant, do not do anything more until you have council."

"Ms. Granger, you are out of line." Dykema stood up quickly and whirled on her. "You will leave now."

Hermione looked at Dykema and Lefay. She was not sure what was going on here, but it seemed that they were trying to railroad an innocent man. It appeared that O'Briant was about to sign some form of confession that was obtained illegally. She could not let this continue.

"Fine, I will leave, but not without my client," she answered firmly.

"What are you talking about?" Dykema asked, his face turning red from anger. Hermione did not answer Dykema. She directed her next statement to O'Briant.

"Mr. O'Briant, do not sign that document until I have reviewed it. Also you are to say nothing more."

She then looked at Dykema and stated coolly.

"This interrogation is over. Mr. O'Briant is now represented by council and has nothing more to say on my advice."

She then looked at Lefay.

"You will either charge my client or release him as you have held him longer than forty-eight hours."

Dykema slammed his fist down and grabbed Hermione by the arm starting to push her out of the room. "Outside now, Granger."

He then followed her as he shoved her out of the room.

Once outside, he shouted at her angrily.

"What the hell are you playing at, Granger?"

"Weasley," Hermione felt her heart pounding as she answered him calmly.

"What?" Dykema asked hotly.

"My name is Weasley," she answered, "It would be best if you remembered that."

"That marriage was annulled by the Wizengamot."

"Actually, that law has been repealed and my marriage…"

"That is not the point, Miss Granger, and you know it. What are you doing?"

"Right now, I am waiting to see my client, so I can review the accusations being made against him by the Ministry."

"You have no client, Granger."

"Actually, the second I entered that room I had a client." Hermione answered.

"You work for me, and if you want to continue to do so you will leave here now." Dykema again started to push her towards the door.

Hermione shook away from Dykema and whirled around drawing her wand.

"That is the second time you have assaulted me," she shouted. "Don't do it again." Hermione took a breath, still holding her wand on Dykema. She continued, "Now you will get out of my way and let me see my client."

Dykema just glared at Hermione for a minute then he answered.

"Miss Granger, you are fired. You will leave these premises immediately. I will have your things sent to you. Turn in your Ministry Badge."

Hermione just stared at Dykema, shocked.

"On what grounds are you firing me?" she asked.

"Gross insubordination and threatening a superior."

Hermione laughed, "Kingsley will never agree to this."

Dykema grinned, "Kingsley has nothing to say. Now get out."


End file.
